People relate to nature in several ways. In a series of videos, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency presents four perspectives on the future of nature in Europe: Strengthening Cultural Identity, Allowing Nature to Find its Way, Going with the Economic Flow and Working with Nature. What is your perspective on nature?
Four perspectives – four futures for nature …
In Strengthening Cultural Identity, people identify with where they live. They feel connected with nature and the landscape, and consider this an integral part of their local and regional communities and essential to a meaningful life.
In Allowing Nature to Find its Way, people feel strongly about the intrinsic value of natural processes and species, and feel responsible for providing nature with sufficient space and time to develop. From this perspective, there is an extensive European nature network that also includes wildlife corridors and rivers.
In Going with the Economic Flow, the focus is on nature to suit people’s individual lifestyle. Public authorities are responsible for ensuring a basic network of nature areas, while businesses and citizens take the initiative in nature management and development outside these areas.
In Working with Nature, the various functions of nature are considered the basis for human life. People use natural processes and strive for an optimal, long-term delivery of services from these natural systems to society and the economy.
... and four ways to get there
People not only have different perspectives on the future of nature, they also have different ideas about who should be leading the way towards that future. Some see a large role for the EU and national government, others look towards regional authorities, and then there are some who envision businesses and/or citizens themselves taking the initiative.
Finding common ground
Strengthening societal engagement in nature by involving a wide variety of actors could be key in finding new opportunities to realise nature and biodiversity goals. These videos raise awareness of the different viewpoints these actors may bring to the table or trigger them to share their own perspective; each video ends with the question: ‘This is my perspective – what’s yours?’. They can thus be used as a tool to find common ground in setting nature policies at EU, national and regional levels.
Nature Outlook for Europe
The videos are part of the Nature Outlook project by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. The project aims to provide an inspirational building block for a new EU Biodiversity Strategy beyond 2020. The Nature Outlook report itself will be published in March 2017.
Contact
More information: Mirjam Hartman (PBL's spokesperson) via persvoorlichting@pbl.nl.
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