Nature Report 2018

Nature Outlook 2050

We don't have a crystal ball that can show us what Flanders will look in 2050. However, that shouldn't prevent us from looking ahead and envisioning solutions for the distant future. Visions of the future reflect our wishes and expectations. This is no different when we are considering the nature of tomorrow (and beyond). Everybody does so from their own vision of what nature should and could be.

The Nature Outlook 2050 is based on four different visions of the future regarding nature, which were previously developed for Europe. Working with a broad group of stakeholders, we adapted them to the Flemish context. The visions of the future aim to list a number of important choices that policy is facing and to demonstrate their possible outcomes.

None of these visions, however, is "the" vision for Flanders. They already exist side by side and can reinforce or oppose each other. With this report, we hope to make the corresponding choices and their consequences tangible in stories, images and numbers.

We are not providing a blueprint with ready-made solutions for policies, but rather we want to offer inspiration. To create a picture of the future, we have expanded our scientific toolbox with devices that you don't usually find in a nature report. In addition to traditional figures and indicators, this report presents impressions of landscapes in 2050. It also includes fictional testimonies about life in 2050. They are intended to lend the reader's imagination a helping hand.

>> We also developed a website (in Dutch) that visualises the ' scenarios