This panel takes as its starting point emerging critiques of "Nature-based Solutions" (NbS), which challenge the dominant framing of NbS as a technocratic fix; one that positions local communities as external to nature rather than as part of it. Drawing on pathways centred on community stewardship and place-based knowledge systems, the panel reframes conservation as a relational, kinship-based duty, attentive to historical, political, and cultural dimensions rather than reduced to a purely technical intervention. Building on examples of community-led conservation systems, it explores what changes when we move from "solving" nature's problems to recognising people as integral to ecosystems, and what this shift means for policy and practice.

The session is organised as part of the FITNESS project supported by the EU BIODIVERSA+ fund, and in collaboration between Ashoka University and the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway.