Presentation short abstract

Together with diverse restoration actors, we explored different future trajectories for the social-ecological restoration landscape in western Rwanda. Through this, we co-produced action-oriented strategies for how to move towards a restoration future that reflects diverse needs and preferences.

Presentation long abstract

Restoration activities unfold in landscapes shaped by complex human-environment interactions. Social-ecological systems thinking has evolved as a perspective specifically aiming to disentangle the social-ecological dynamics that shape such landscapes. As such, it is ideally suited to examine how links between humans and their environment shape contexts and outcomes of restoration and explore what this means for future restoration interventions. In this presentation, I share insights from transdisciplinary social-ecological systems research on restoration futures in western Rwanda. I will highlight two recent studies that use complementary methods to elicit diverse actors’ needs and preferences regarding the future of restoration in the study area. First, using a Three Horizons visioning process, we asked participants to assess beneficial and detrimental dynamics that characterize the restoration system in western Rwanda today, identify desirable future system states, and develop actionable pathways that connect the present and the future. Second, using participatory scenario planning, we invited participants to identify critical drivers of social-ecological change and discuss plausible future restoration trajectories in the study area to explore what the social-ecological restoration landscape in western Rwanda might look like in the year 2050. Through these two approaches, we were able to (1) make diverse actors assumptions and preferences explicit, (2) foster in-depth reflection and exchange on past, present, and future restoration in the study area, and (3) co-produce tangible, action-oriented strategies for how to move forward.