This transdisciplinary project explores how the novel methodology and societal innovation of ‘Ecological Pilgrimage’ can transform the recreational use of hiking trails to meet biodiversity conservation objectives. Departing from historical connotations of colonial expeditions or religious ceremonies, pilgrimage is approached here as a reparative journey that enables meaningful engagement with non-human communities amid existential ecological crises. The project brings together diverse knowledge systems to generate insights on how biodiversity and human activities can coexist in reciprocal and regenerative ways. This ambition is guided by sustainability scientists who view biodiversity loss as a symptom of a profound relational crisis and highlight human-nature connectedness as key to sustainability transformations at individual and societal levels. The project draws theoretical and methodological guidance from ‘ecological reparation’ as a bottom-up, relational approach that seeks to mend damaged ecologies and bridge the nature-culture divide. The notion highlights transversal experimentation and the reinvention of lost knowledge, skills, and practices of repair.
