Participatory Design for Multispecies Cohabitation: By Trees, for Birds, with Humans

How can we improve the lives of trees, birds, humans, and other beings in increasingly degrading environments? Might direct participation of non-human beings in design be an answer? We believe that such participation is not only possible, but crucial. The idea of trees as designers and birds as assessors might seem jarring, if not preposterous. We hope our readers might suspend their disbelief until the latter stages of the narrative. To tell our story, we refresh several common terms, including community, imagination, innovation, and participation. We derive these updates from scientific evidence, even where the consequences seem counterintuitive. Why do we need these novel understandings? After all, our case study could stand as a technical contribution to restoration ecology without an appeal for more-than-human participation. We shall be pleased to contribute in this way. However, we have another—strategicambition. Our overarching motivation is an expansion of moral consideration in human societies. We observe that more and more humans agree to protect the rights of human minorities, future human generations, and even whole systems such as rivers. An aspect of this ethical concern is the idea of helping all beings speak for themselves. ‘Nothing about us without us’ is a slogan that captures it well. This slogan motivates the disability movement and others struggling against injustice. Can it apply to non-human beings, too? Political empowerment of non-humans clashes with preconceptions about communities. However, ingrained habits are not a good reason to reject change, not amid the sixth mass extinction and widespread harms to numerous beings. With this in mind, we strive to give serious consideration to inclusive design that can use non-human knowledge to look into the future. In this chapter, we use data analysis and simulation to make one step forward in this long-term project.