Discussion

Working on sustainable development of the biosphere, whether it is towards desired futures of local environments or achieving international goals, requires action-oriented approaches that are pluralistic and integrated (Bai et al. 2016; Jacobs et al. 2020; Caniglia et al. 2021). We present a novel approach to exploring desirable nature futures and what it takes to get there that we applied in National Park Hollandse Duinen. Our aim was to test the NFF at the regional scale and inform the development trajectory of NPHD. Here, we reflect on what we learned by applying the approach and present pointers to future research.

Reflections on the approach

As people’s decisions and actions are underpinned by their values, the role of values in sustainability transformation is increasingly discussed (Bieling et al. 2020), whereby plural valuation is recognized as key for inclusive and fair decision making (Muradian and Pascual 2018; Jacobs et al. 2020; Hensler et al. 2021). Yet approaches that show how different values, and their combinations, drive the unfolding of the future remain scarce (Harmáčková et al. 2021). The NFF proved an easy to use tool that is effective for eliciting and discussing diverse and plural value perspectives of nature as a basis for a place-based visioning process. As one of the first field tests of the NFF, the application in NPHD showed that all three value perspectives, includingNature as Culture , can resonate in a densely populated area in northwestern Europe.
The process in NPHD yielded rich discussions that serve as a source of inspiration for stakeholders. Tellingly, the three group names embody and hence point to important strategies for dealing with identified challenges, that is, a hard coupling between housing development and nature development (How Green is Red?), making connections, physical and relational, for new partnerships (The Bridge Builder), and strengthening local identity as a leverage point for collective action (Our Park Hollandse Duinen). The process helped participants discuss how not everything is possible, but a lot might be, especially when underpinned by a joint sense of what the overall direction should be. Collaboratively created visions serve as a boundary objective to have constructive conversations about what that direction should be (van Rooij et al. 2021). Such visions can, and even should, be pluralistic (McPhearson et al. 2016); they do not have to be fully shared among actors to provide a target space for collaboration. Importantly, the participants identified a critical need of a shared set of key values and principles, the “DNA of NPHD”, to structure a boundary process towards the desirable futures for NPHD (Fig. 6), to fly as a “flock of starlings”. To a large extent the pluralistic vision and shared principles are already formed by the national park partners, as presented the official ambition document (NPHD 2017) and landscape strategy (Veenstra 2020), following extensive stakeholder engagement. Yet, in support of the first working program of NPHD 2021-2025 (NPHD 2020b), these can be further evolved, enriched and operationalized.