Visioning ecologically diverse and harmonious futures of Korea in Good Anthropocene

Using the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) and the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes (SoGA) approach, we co-developed four ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’ visions that reflect diverse values and meanings of nature for sustainable and well-being oriented futures in Korea.
These visions emphasize balancing human activities with ecological integrity, reimagining the DMZ as a space for peace, restoration and shared stewardship. They express citizens’ perspectives on aspirational and inclusive futures, highlighting existing initiatives as levers for change and intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration as key enabling conditions.
The visioning process was conducted in a participant workshop as part of the 2023 EcoPeace Forum at DMZ OPEN Festival in South Korea. During this workshop, the science-policy-society interface became a fruitful ground for co-creation, social cohesion and diverse stakeholder engagement.

A research project ‘Korean Nature Futures’ was launched in 2024 following the 2023 EcoPeace Forum to elaborate the future visions with realizable pathways and to generate new and timely evidence to inform synergistic policies around biodiversity conservation, climate neutrality and societal well-being on the Korean Peninsula. Integrating complementary systems of knowledge and scientific and modelling advancements, the Korean Nature Futures project aspires to inform potential policies and actions for societal, ecological and economic transformations towards the citizens’ preferred futures, shifting the paradigm of future prospecting from risk-oriented forecasting to actionable pathway co-constructed with citizen stakeholders.