Interdependencies of societies and nature in democratic innovations for the ecological transition in the context of the New Green Deal - the case of the H2020 Phoenix Project

Starting from the experience of participating in the European project ‘PHOENIX: the rise of citizen voices for a Greener Europe’, this article aims to report on the approach developed for integrating the voices of nature into deliberative and participatory processes, as part of the Ecological Transition outlined by the European Green Deal. Challenging conventional views that have historically relegated non-humans to a marginal position in political debates and participatory processes, the proposal to integrate representatives of nature into democratic processes reflects a broader vision, morally recognising non-humans as legitimate participants in the political sphere. This highlights the need for a model of discursive citizenship that is pluralistic, reflective and transnational, promoting interspecies communication as an essential part of ecological transformation.