Contribution short abstract

Integrating nonhuman needs into land use modelling reveals their agency in shaping landscapes and nature’s contributions. This methodological approach supports fairer futures, informs governance, and highlights power and justice issues in human-nonhuman relationships, promoting societal shifts.

Contribution long abstract

Exploratory futures often consider human-nature relationships but still primarily focus on human needs. Approaches such as the IPBES Nature Futures Framework recognise the plural and relational values of nature, yet their use in tools like land use models continues to privilege human-centred outcomes. This work argues that nonhumans also shape landscapes, influence the flow of nature’s gifts, and should be considered as actors rather than resources in decisions about land use and sustainable futures.

The talk presents insights from a methodological approach for conceptualising nonhuman demands and linking them with how people benefit from and affect nature. This draws on the interplay between nature’s contributions to people, nature’s contributions to nature, and people’s contributions to nature as a core co-creation dynamic.

Including nonhuman needs in land-use modelling tools produces understandings that can help sustain benefits for humans while reducing harms for both humans and nonhumans. The model outputs can inform governance and planning strategies and make more visible the role of policies and societies in building healthy human-nonhuman relationships. It raises important questions about the power and justice implications of recognising nonhuman voices in decisions about socio-ecological priorities and the provision and distribution of nature’s contributions.

This conceptual approach brings more-than-human political ecology into land use modelling by creating space for nonhuman agency. It represents a transboundary method that links political ecology, sustainability narratives, land system dynamics, mathematical approaches, and empirical data. It also supports the development of nature-centred scenarios that are more consistent with ecocentric and pluricentric perspectives.