Maasai Nature-Futures through the lens of ‘Eramatare’

Within the aspirations of Agenda 2063, ‘The Africa We Want’, the continent envisions a relational future where social justice, cultural identity, and environmental stewardship are intertwined with economic progress. This alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 prioritizes African agency and the communal management of ancestral resources. Yet, much of the existing foresight research remains regionally disjointed and theoretically thin, often favouring top-down macroeconomic regimes over bottom-up community narratives. Such dominant paradigms risk framing local people as passive observers of ecological shifts, rather than active custodians and creators of their own desirable futures. Bridging these conceptual gaps requires a shift toward foresight thinking that co-designs actionable pathways rooted in local worldviews (Singo, 2026). This research centres Indigenous relational ontology, ‘Eramatare’, a reciprocal way of living with nature, where nature is seen as intertwined with human society sorely on relational terms. It uses ‘Eramatare’ by grounding it in empirical case studies of two communal conservancies, to explore how Indigenous perspectives can drive durable transformations toward sustainability. In doing so, it challenges Western world views that often treat people and nature as separate entities.

By centering Eramatare and related relational values as an African, Indigenous-grounded perspective, this research makes an important contribution to the largely Western-centred futures literature: by introducing empirically grounded, culturally embedded approaches to sustainability transformations in conservation and pastoralism contexts. Intended impact is to influence national policies on conservation to legitimize Indigenous ontologies in resource stewardships and integrate Nature Future Framework and local Indigenous relational ontologies in futures scholarship.