We closed out 20th June, 2025, with an unforgettable session alongside the Landscape Stewards at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Community & Action Assembly 2025. What an honour it was to sit together, share, and reflect on the power of stories in shaping the way we see our landscapes and ourselves.
One truth stood out boldly during the session: the best way to protect community stories from being misunderstood is first to learn how to tell them truthfully and powerfully. Stories are not just words or images; they are living testimonies of people’s identities, struggles, and resilience.
At Biophilic Conversations, we believe that ethical storytelling is not optional; it is essential. In this workshop, we explored how values and principles guide every choice we make as storytellers, from the language we use to the images we share, to the responsibility we hold for how stories travel once they leave our hands.
Together with the stewards, we unpacked the ethics of consent, representation, and care, asking ourselves what it really means to tell stories that honour both people and place.
The Landscape Stewards brought to the circle their own experiences and perspectives, generously sharing stories that revealed the beauty, challenges, and wisdom embedded in their communities. In the end, we came to a profound realisation: we are all storytellers. Whether through photographs, films, or even conversations passed across generations, we each carry the responsibility of keeping our landscapes alive in memory and meaning.
One of the most thought-provoking questions raised during the session was: Can we lie in storytelling if it helps people feel the impact?
The question stopped us in our tracks. It sparked a long silence, followed by an honest dialogue. What if, instead of bending the truth for impact, we believed that our own stories, raw, unpolished, rooted in truth, are already powerful enough? What if we trusted that the lived realities of our people, our forests, our soils, our waters, and our drylands carry all the weight they need to move hearts and shift policy?
This reflection reminded us why storytelling must be anchored in justice and equity. The stories we tell must never silence or distort; they must build bridges between communities and the world, between evidence and empathy, between lived experience and decision-making.
As we closed, there was a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the Global Landscapes Forum for creating this space. Gratitude for the Landscape Stewards, whose courage and insights challenged us all to see storytelling not just as a tool, but as an act of stewardship. And gratitude for the reminder that in telling our stories, we honour those who cannot always speak, yet whose lives are interwoven with the fate of our shared landscapes.
To every Landscape Steward who joined us: thank you. Your voices are proof that we are indeed the best people to tell our own stories, stories that can inspire, protect, and transform.
Photos by Tobias Odhacha
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