Research: Voices of the Future
Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes.
Project summary
Research summary
-
August 2021 - July 2024
This project will develop new methods of engaging young people in designing, creating and caring for treescapes, including natural woodlands and urban parks.
Researchers will explore how treescapes – landscapes where trees play a significant role - could be expanded to meet the UK’s net-zero targets, and examine how trees and society can benefit each other.
The research will help shape environmental planning and tackle future climate change pressures.
Background
Led by Manchester Metropolitan University, the project is also in collaboration with the universities of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cumbria, Middlesex and Sheffield.
Children and young people across Greater Manchester, Yorkshire/Northern England and Aberdeen, ranging from early years through to primary and secondary school, will be co-researchers of the project.
A particular emphasis has been made on children and young people from traditionally marginalised groups, whose access to and inclusion in treescapes is often limited.
They will work alongside a broad range of Manchester Met’s researchers, based in environmental and social science as well as climatology and the arts.
National and regional partners include the Chartered College of Teachers, Early Childhood Outdoors, Natural England, Forest Research, and Manchester City of Trees and Mersey Forest.
The project is part of a wider £14.5 million-funded Future of UK Treescapes programme, which involves thirteen universities and research institutes and aims to biologically and socially examine the UK’s treescapes.
It is also part of Manchester Met’s sustainability research for the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).
Voices of the Future and COP26
Hear from Principal Investigator Professor Kate Pahl as she urges COP26 delegates to understand the importance of young people via projects, such as Voices of the Future, to deliver the conference's ambitions.Quote
Despite increasing youth activism on climate change issues, children and young people's voices are still rarely heard in policy and practice. This project aims to address that. We cannot have sustainable treescapes without equipping young people with the tools to plan better environments.
Research methods and outputs
research methods
This project will use co-productive research methods, where researchers and participants all work together and co-own the research.
Co-production will be used across all disciplines, sectors and life stages, facilitated by a series of Critical Discussion Labs to share findings.
Arts-based methods will also be used to create an understanding of children and young people’s existing perceptions and knowledge of treescapes, as well as to provide the conditions to share this knowledge.
Researchers will also explore their perceptions of treescapes in the present and in the future, discussing what treescapes mean to them now and how treescapes should be viewed in the future.
Research outputs
This project aims to create a set of co-designed resources to be used locally, nationally and internationally, including:
- a practice toolkit of resources, including ‘how-to’ guides, youth-generated videos and activity packs
- a professional toolkit of resources for assessing the carbon store of urban treescapes
- a set of educational resources to support teachers to develop innovative child-led programmes that go beyond the current curriculum
- a set of policy recommendations for local and national governments focusing on engagement with treescapes
- Community Forest strategies, which will integrate project findings into Manchester and Aberdeen’s 2025 strategies
- an academic book to be published as part of Routledge Publishing’s ‘Spaces of Childhood and Youth’ series, drawing together the thinking produced by the project
- an online digital exhibition which explores children and young peoples’ relationships with treescapes
- a project conference in collaboration which will include a large-scale projection of a project film
- a series of treescapes in the Northern Forest region which will provide a model for future initiatives and a legacy of the children and young people involved in the project
Treescapes banner
Sustainablility
Sustainable development goals
Good health and wellbeing
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Quality education
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Reduced inequalities
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Climate action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Life on land
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land
Research team
Research team
Principal investigator
Lead Co-investigators
- Dr Caitlin Nunn
- Professor Peter Kraftl (University of Birmingham)
- Dr Simon Carr (University of Cumbria)
Co-investigators
- Dr Jennifer Rowntree
- Dr Khawla Badwan
- Dr Abigail Hackett
- Dr David Cooper
- Dr Christopher Hanley
- Dr Jo Vergunst (University of Aberdeen)
- Dr Elizabeth Curtis (University of Aberdeen)
- Dr Edward Schofield (University of Aberdeen)
- Dr Emily Lines (University of Cambridge)
- Dr Johan Siebers (Middlesex University)
- Dr Clare Rishbeth (University of Sheffield)
Researchers
- Samyia Ambreen (Manchester Metropolitan University)
- Peter Lawrence (Cumbria University)
- Dr Frances Ryfield (University of Cumbria)
Artists in residence
- Steve Pool
- David Cường Nguyễn
Funding
With funding from
UK Research and Innovation - NERC
Contact
Contact us
If you have any questions about the project, please email Prof Kate Pahl.