The Positive Futures Project: Co-creating Global Scenarios based on Projects from Communities and Territories

As we face an era of intertwined crises—climate change, social inequalities, and resource scarcity—the Positive Futures Project emerges as a powerful response, rooted in the diverse voices of grassroots communities all over the world. Our project prioritizes the narratives of grassroots communities, Indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, favela residents, and other marginalized groups from the Global South,
focusing on their wisdom and lived experiences to shape the vision of possible positive futures. In this context, we are high lightening forests:
Forests have a history intertwined with human action for thousands of years. The Cosmo perceptions of the Forest project take as its starting point existing initiatives in indigenous and traditional territories in South America and Europe, which work to regenerate relationships between many species, human and non-human, based on the ways of life of forest peoples. From this perspective, the forest is more than a "biome" or a set of "resources"; but a material and symbolic place that enables ways of thinking and creating worlds. This forest
has history, technology and knowledge with the potential to reverse processes that today threaten life on the planet.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation, active in over 50 countries, together with the Goethe Institute, active in 98 countries bring this initiative to the forefront at COP30 in Belém do Pará. With a strong emphasis on cocreation, the project aims to integrate local perspectives into global solutions through a collaborative and iterative process of scenario building supported by a multinational and multi-disciplinary scenario committee.
By gathering contributions from communities and their territories across the globe, the Positive Futures will synthesize these visions into a mosaic of possibilities, represented in a multilingual intelligent platform with an integrated arena for interactive future building.
During this side-event, a high-level panel formed by members of the scenario-committee of the Positive Futures Project and members of the Cosmo perceptions of the Forest project will explore how grassroots innovation from agroecology, care economy, youth, digital rights, mobility, energy transformation, sustainable cities planning, spirituality and arts might form a new vivid process of transformation.
This session will culminate in a call to action: Join us in co-creating a forum on our positive-futures-platform for intercultural exchange, dialogue, and inspiration. Together, we can make the COP30 a more inclusive launchpad for solutions that inspire tangible, collective change now!
https://br.boell.org/pt-br/2025/08/05/adiar-os-fins-do-mundo-e-imaginar-futuros-positivos

Panelists:

Shamsundar Subberao - NIE/CREST, Mysore, India
Lennon Medeiros - Visão Coop, Queimados, Brazil
Paulo Petersen - AS-PTA, ANA, IHU, Brazil
Renata Tupinambá or Anita Ekman - Cosmo perceptions, Goethe Institute - Rio de Janeiro
Imme Scholz or Jan Philipp Albrecht - Presidency Heinrich Boell Stiftung, Berlin, Germany

Regine Schoenenberg - Böll Foundation, Rio de Janeiro (Moderation)