ARALAR
ECOSYSTEMS™
Explore the living system

Everything connects.
Where will you begin?

Select a thread to explore how people, communities and institutions can strengthen their relationship with the living world.

A conceptual framework for exploration, not a biological DNA model. Each node also has a complete profile in the catalogue below.

Systemic Node Catalog

The 10 Building Blocks
of Ecosystem Transformation

Select any block below to open the complete Agenda 2050 & institutional action profile.

Explore Tree of Life & DNA Helix views

Ten connected perspectives—not ten separate services. Combine the building blocks around your community’s question, then explore how we can work together.

01
Node 01 · Orange Strand

Selection environments for innovation

Create shared spaces for institutions and communities to explore how experiences can improve their relationship with the living world and support wellbeing.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Bring a workshop, exhibition or City Lab experience to your institution. Use the Living World Relationship Index and systems analysis to agree a starting point, test invitations and learn together.

What we can learn

Participation, accessibility, community feedback and changes in repeated relationship reflections.

SDGs · 09 · 11 · 13
02
Node 02 · Green Strand

Rights of Nature

Explore Rights of Nature through people’s relationship with the living world, wellbeing and responsibilities towards other living beings.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Use the Mendien Ahotsa documentary, an exhibition and a facilitated workshop to introduce Rights of Nature and create conversations about care, reciprocity and the wellbeing of people and the living world.

What we can learn

Themes raised in conversations, participant reflections and locally agreed opportunities for care.

SDGs · 15 · 16
03
Node 03 · Green Strand

Nature-based Education

Use lived experience and learning to strengthen relationships with the living world and support the wellbeing of students and communities.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Co-create workshops, campus experiences and educational wellbeing paths. Combine the Index, outdoor invitations, documentary and reflection with educators and students.

What we can learn

Learning reflections, participation and repeated relationship measures; wellbeing outcomes evaluated separately when agreed.

SDGs · 03 · 04 · 15
04
Node 04 · Green Strand

Local Knowledge & Cultural Heritage

Bring local and biocultural knowledge into shared experience to enrich relationships with the living world and wellbeing across generations.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Co-create documentary conversations, exhibitions and workshops with knowledge holders. Connect mountain stories and community experiences with science, consent and respectful exchange. Museums and cultural centres can host exhibitions, workshops and community-led conversations.

What we can learn

Knowledge-holder participation, consent, representation, community feedback and shared learning.

SDGs · 04 · 11 · 17
05
Node 05 · Green Strand

Just Transition

Make experiences that strengthen relationships with the living world and support wellbeing accessible to different communities.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Co-design inclusive workshops, exhibitions and wellbeing routes with participants. Listen to barriers to access and adapt invitations, language and formats to the people taking part.

What we can learn

Accessibility, participation across communities, barriers identified and adaptations agreed.

SDGs · 10 · 11 · 13
06
Node 06 · Blue Strand

Innovation Systems

Connect institutions through shared learning about relationships with the living world and the wellbeing of people and living places.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Bring universities, cities, museums and cultural centres into the International Observatory conversation. Share workshops, documentary discussions, methods and learning from local experiences. Health and care organisations can contribute staff wellbeing experiences and shared learning.

What we can learn

Agreed exchanges, shared questions, workshop feedback and learning outputs; any data sharing requires agreement.

SDGs · 09 · 17
07
Node 07 · Blue Strand

Sustainable Lifestyles

Explore everyday practices of care, reflection and reciprocity that improve relationships with the living world and support wellbeing.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Use workshops, local experiences and facilitated conversations to explore small daily practices. Invite people to reflect on what they notice, value and choose to care for.

What we can learn

Participant reflections, reported practices and community feedback, without guaranteeing habit formation.

SDGs · 03 · 12 · 13
08
Node 08 · Orange Strand

Nature-based Solutions

Co-create nature-based experiences that strengthen relationships with the living world and support wellbeing in a particular place.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Develop educational wellbeing paths, regenerative pathways and QR invitations with your community. Use systems analysis, the Index, workshops and lived experience to shape the programme.

What we can learn

Agreed relationship reflections, participation and place-specific outcomes; health and ecological outcomes need their own evaluation.

SDGs · 03 · 06 · 11 · 13 · 15
09
Node 09 · Orange Strand

Living Cities

Bring relationships with the living world into city life, connecting community experience with wellbeing and care.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Explore the City Lab Donostia design: climate-refuge routes, parks, city spaces, university settings and lecterns with QR invitations. Add a workshop, exhibition or documentary conversation suited to your community.

What we can learn

Route accessibility, participation, community feedback and agreed before-and-after reflections.

SDGs · 03 · 11 · 13
10
Node 10 · Orange Strand

Valuing the Living World

Explore what the living world means to people, and how those relationships support wellbeing, care and shared priorities.

Inspect Institutional Options

What we can co-create

Use the Index and systems analysis alongside documentary, exhibitions and workshops to open conversations about relational, cultural and ecological value. Let community experience inform what your institution chooses to co-create.

What we can learn

Values expressed, participant reflections, shared priorities and opportunities for care identified.

SDGs · 03 · 12 · 15 · 17

These ten perspectives connect Aralar’s offer: the Living World Relationship Index, systems analysis, nature-based experiences, documentary, exhibitions and workshops—for our relationship with the living world and wellbeing. SDG links indicate thematic relevance.

Methodology

The Aralar methodology

Science, lived experience and biocultural knowledge come together in eight connected steps. They guide experiences for institutions, education and local communities, with wellbeing and care for the living world as shared aims.

1Senses

Notice a living place through sound, texture, movement and seasonal change. Attentive encounters create opportunities to recognise life and its needs.

2Awe

Encounter scale, complexity and unexpected life. Awe can broaden attention beyond immediate concerns, inviting curiosity and a sense of belonging to something larger.

3Meaning

Connect places with histories, identity and ecological cycles. Stories of great-grandparents and dignity locate present responsibilities within inherited and future lives.

4Emotions

Recognise affection, gratitude, joy, concern and grief in relation to living places. Emotional connection gives experience personal significance, including when places change or are lost.

5Community

Explore belonging, participation and shared responsibility. “Nature is village” and communal mountains make interdependence visible. Dolpo and Enirio-Aralar connect local knowledge, resource use and collective care.

6Relationship

Recognise particular beings and places, their needs and the consequences of our actions. Asking forgiveness after cutting a tree, in Aralar’s Ngöbe field example from Corcovado, opens a conversation about responsibility.

7Reciprocity

Respond to what living places provide through ongoing care. Acequia maintenance and water-protection coalitions connect organised contributions with shared responsibility. Taos Pueblo links water with cultural responsibility and authority.

8Regeneration

Protect the capacity of living systems to renew and recover. Amchi care for future plants invites informed restraint and harvesting adapted to local conditions, so future life can continue.

Five layers connect the eight steps with questions and observable evidence. The framework guides reflection and evaluation; it does not report measured results.

LayerQuestionPathwaysObservable evidence
ExperienceHow does a person encounter and feel a living place?Senses, awe, meaning, emotionsAttention, attachment, perceived recovery
BelongingWho participates and who decides?CommunityCaretakers participate; roles and access are shared; ecological needs enter decisions
AttentionHow do we recognise and respond to this place?RelationshipDependencies are understood; decisions change with the place’s condition
ObligationWhat responsibility do we fulfil in return?ReciprocityAgreed contributions are completed, maintained and judged useful by custodians
ConditionDoes the system recover or retain living capacity?RegenerationEcological indicators show the condition and trajectory of water and habitat

From experience to reflection

We agree a starting point with each institution, co-create place-based invitations through these eight steps, and return to the Living World Relationship Index after the experience. The Index offers nine reflections; these eight steps guide the programme. Wellbeing and ecological outcomes require their own evaluation.