This is an invitation only roundtable bringing together local authorities and industry experts to explore how more-than-human thinking can be embedded in planning policy and practice. 

The idea of taking care of our environment in order to look after ourselves has been enshrined in planning principles since the launch of the sustainability agenda. There is greater urgency now with climate change and biodiversity loss compelling us to go beyond existing mechanisms of sustainable planning that remain human-centric. It requires reimagining the environment with its diverse inhabitants, where planning works in and for multi-species communities - humans, plants, soils, microbes, birds, fungi, insects, native and non-native animals. This way of reframing the human/nature relationship has been defined as more-than-human thinking. How can such a sensibility be translated into concrete practice where it matters and makes a difference in an increasingly blurred human/natural world? 

This roundtable engages with the question of what a call for more-than-human planning entails and how it can be embedded in policy and practice. It follows a shift from a view of ‘nature for people’ involving tree planting exercises to ‘nature with people’ as documented in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) at varying scales from green roofs to green corridors enhancing connectivity for pollinators, probing how we can bring in non-human agents as important stakeholders in everyday planning processes. 

NLA, working together with UCL, are bringing together planners from local government alongside experts from relevant consultancies to discuss recent efforts in this direction and consider how it develops as more-than-human planning.