Amplifying the ‘Voice of Nature’ at the Forum’s 2025 Annual Meeting

For some of us, our contact with nature is limited to a walk in the park or a hike up a mountain. Yet we too are a part of nature, and nature is in us, from the bacteria of our gut to our genealogical line that stretches back over millennia of evolution.

We humans are also dependent on nature for the food we eat, the water we drink and the natural fibres we wear. We’re not the only ones. Over half the world's total GDP, an estimated $44 trillion, is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services – so nature is embedded within our economic and societal models too.

This year at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, we explore four novel identities of nature beyond those mentioned above, outlining how they are coming to life during Davos.

The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting is ‘collaboration for an intelligent age’. For millennia, nature’s complex systems have thrived in interdependence and specialization, with evolution propelled through times of turbulent change. Nature’s intricate intelligence supports connection and engagement across natural and human-made systems.

One of the Centre for Nature and Climate’s thematics in Davos this year relates to the wisdom of nature. We’ll be highlighting indigenous knowledge and indigenous peoples through interventions from Mindahi Bastida Munoz, Fany Kuiru and Hindou Ibrahim. We’ll also be highlighting how nature is an innovator and the ecopreneurship potential of partnering with nature to inform decision-making and enhance environmental outcomes.

Recognizing nature as an intelligent system and finding innovative ways to support and cherish her is becoming a more natural practice. From 1t.org to the Tropical Forest Alliance, Ocean Action Agenda and Nature Action Agenda, the Forum aims to catalyze multistakeholder action and systems change for the transition towards a nature-positive economy.

From the pagans to the Romantics, artists and writers have recognized the role nature plays in inspiring creative potential, but also the ways in which culture helps us understand our connection to nature. According to Yo-Yo Ma: “Culture makes us human. It is how we create trust, wonder, faith, belonging. It reminds us that nature is part of our humanity and that it contains an imagination greater than our own.”

Nature’s sounds transcend conventional boundaries, with the ability to influence listeners’ emotions, set an atmosphere, awaken our senses and provide spatial awareness. Nature also supports our wellbeing. Japan developed the concept of forest bathing in the 1980s and showed through many studies that spending time surrounded by nature’s soundscapes are beneficial for human health and wellbeing.

With the help of the Earth Decides community, at this year’s Annual Meeting soundscapes will be built into sessions across the programme, including in 10-minute visioning segments at the beginning of five sessions in the Open Forum and played in a range of Safeguarding the Planet sessions in the Congress Centre.

We’re drawn to the sounds of nature – from the patter of raindrops to the whispers of leaves on a windy day. Indeed, many artists incorporate the sounds of our world into tracks sold to the public and streamed on our favourite platforms. But too often, the money earned from these royalties doesn’t go back to the landscapes from which sounds originate – even though these fragile spaces urgently need support.

For example, in the remote cloud forests of Chicaque Natural Park in Colombia sounds reverberate thanks to a tall stone wall. These forests are home to 300 bird species, 183 mammal species and 3,000 plant species. However, Colombia’s cloud forests are under threat from deforestation and agricultural expansion, leading to significant habitat fragmentation.

Through NATURE becoming an official artist, royalties from its soundscapes and musical collaborations with human artists, can be directed to nature protection and restoration programmes, as outlined above. Musical releases include nature’s own music, field recordings of ecosystems from around the world from some of the world’s leading acoustic ecology sound artists such as The Listening Planet and VozTerra, as well as a playlist of tracks that feature nature by global artists who intentionally bring sounds of the natural world into their creations.

Yo-Yo Ma, for example, has pledged his earnings from the above recording of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 to EarthPercent.

Another initiative – The Earth As Your Co-writer – allows artists to co-credit The Earth in musical composition or songwriting, directing a share of songwriting income to environmental and climate justice organisations or gifting a whole song to the Earth.

With less than 3% of global philanthropic funding dedicated to addressing climate and nature emergencies, the music sector has the potential to play a lead role in giving back.

Sounds Right is a global music movement, launched in April 2024 by UN Live, EarthPercent and a coalition of partners, to recognise the value of nature, inspire music fans and help fund conservation.

Funds generated are distributed to rights-based nature conservation and restoration projects in the world’s most precious and precarious ecosystems. Projects have proven ecological and community impact models alongside robust monitoring. The Sounds Right Conservation Fund recently awarded its first grants from the initiative, directing $225,000 over two years to four organizations in the Colombian Tropical Andes.

At Davos this year, we are contributing to this innovative financing mechanism by sourcing our soundscapes from collaborators of Sounds Right like the Chicaque Natural Park, to give back to the landscapes we love.