Reversing the gaze on nature in an era of technological innovation

Constance L McDermott, Joseph Scott Boyle, Aoife Bennett, David Cooper, Caitlin Hafferty, Mark Hirons, Eric Mensah Kumeh, Yadvinder Malhi, Mary Menton

How nature is understood and ‘seen’ by governing institutions influences how it is managed. The rise of new digital and remote sensing technologies has reinforced a global gaze ‘from above’ that separates the seer from the people and places seen. This gaze has generated critical data on global climate and biodiversity trends and informed ambitious environmental targets. Yet it also obscures a much wider landscape of human nature relations rooted in particular places. To date, there has been inadequate attention to whether, when and how technologies can be repurposed not only to ‘see’ more diverse forms of caring for nature, but also to reconfigure power relations and ‘count’ alternative contributions towards global goals. This paper employs the metaphor of a “reverse gaze” to symbolize a shifting of power and broadening of perspective. Our analysis draws on the illustrative case of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which contains both quantitative targets typifying a global gaze, and qualitative goals for equity and place-based approaches. We then draw on the literature to identify ten lenses through which global targets focus our vision and ask: (1) What forms of care for nature are missed by these lenses? (2) How might we repurpose technologies to better capture and count these overlooked contributions to the KMGBF? and (3) How might this expanded gaze contribute to more equitable and diverse approaches to governing human nature relations? This paper shows how repurposed, pluriversal technologies can both effectively speak to, and stretch, target-centric governance. It also reflects on the political risks of visibility, emphasising that epistemic justice and co-design are essential to prevent appropriation or erasure of local priorities. It then provides conceptual roadmaps and illustrative examples to demonstrate how the reverse gaze can expand what is measured, recognised, and valued across scales. Ultimately, we argue that the proactive embedding of diverse place-based approaches into global governance, and into the ways we govern through technology, is critical for transforming power relations in ways that enable more just, plural, and resilient human-nature relations.