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What might a landscape look like in which humans not only use nature but also cooperate with it? The international COEVOLVERS project, supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, is seeking answers to this question. It brings together scientists, local authorities, communities, artists, and environmentalists from several European countries to explore new models of coexistence between people and nature in the context of the climate crisis.

The COEVOLVERS project focuses on so-called Nature-based Solutions, which can help retain water in the landscape, restore forests, support biodiversity and increase communities’ resilience to climate change. Scientists involved in the project not only monitor environmental and climate data but also study the relationships between people, landscapes and local communities. They work directly with residents, municipalities, farmers, conservationists and artists to identify solutions that benefit both nature and society.

The research includes interviews with local communities, landscape mapping, participatory workshops, artistic interventions and the creation of interactive exhibitions. The project explores how people perceive nature, what they expect from it, and how the “voices” of water, forests, soil, and animals can be symbolically incorporated into landscape-related decision-making processes. The aim is to develop new forms of collaboration between science, the public and nature.

“Nature is not merely a backdrop or something to be managed from the outside. We are all part of one shared world in which water, soil, forests, animals and people influence each other’s survival. The COEVOLVERS project demonstrates that if we want to address the climate challenges of the future, we must learn to listen to the landscape and cooperate with it once again,” says Tatiana Kluvánková from the Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The project also includes public discussions, artistic activities and interactive exhibitions designed to make environmental topics more accessible to the general public. One of these will be the exhibition Our Beskydy – Human-Nature Coexistence, which will open on 15 August 2026 in Veľké Karlovice in the Beskydy Mountains. Visitors will discover what plants and animals typical of the Beskydy landscape might tell us if they could speak human language, learn about examples of landscape restoration and even experience “how nature feels”.

The topic of new forms of coexistence between humans and nature will also be explored during the public discussion Humans and Nature: Coexistence Without Instructions?, which will take place on 25 June 2026 at the Old Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava. The discussion will focus on whether humans can live with nature not as its managers, but as participants in a shared multispecies world, where not only people but also water, forests and soil have their own needs and limits.

The discussion will be open to the public. The organisers will announce the exact time of the event at a later date.

Prepared by: Eva Sládková, Institute of Forest Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Photo: canva.com