1Senses
Notice a living place through sound, texture, movement and seasonal change. Attentive encounters create opportunities to recognise life and its needs.
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.
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.
| Layer | Question | Pathways | Observable evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experience | How does a person encounter and feel a living place? | Senses, awe, meaning, emotions | Attention, attachment, perceived recovery |
| Belonging | Who participates and who decides? | Community | Caretakers participate; roles and access are shared; ecological needs enter decisions |
| Attention | How do we recognise and respond to this place? | Relationship | Dependencies are understood; decisions change with the place’s condition |
| Obligation | What responsibility do we fulfil in return? | Reciprocity | Agreed contributions are completed, maintained and judged useful by custodians |
| Condition | Does the system recover or retain living capacity? | Regeneration | Ecological 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.