Young people's diverse perceptions of mountain ecosystems: Making nature's values visible

Material and non-material contributions provided by mountain ecosystems intersect with and support the well-being and quality of life of both local communities and visitors. Climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressures are severely impacting these environments, underscoring the urgent need for transformative change. To enable such change, multiple perspectives must be included, and the plural values of nature, particularly those held by different user groups in mountain environments, have to be recognized and incorporated into the process. While the plurality of nature's values has received growing scholarly attention, young people remain underrepresented in this research area, particularly as visitors to mountain environments. Thus, our study applies the Nature Futures Framework to explore how visiting young people ( n = 68; 14–16 years old) perceive and value mountain nature in the Gaisberg Valley (Austria). The participants collected 464 photographs and accompanying short narratives on nature perceptions. We coded the narratives and synthesized these to visualize the distribution of intrinsic, relational, and instrumental values. Our results reveal that visiting young people predominantly emphasize intrinsic (e.g., glaciers and geomorphological features) and relational values (e.g., personal associations and memories), while instrumental values (e.g., water provision and energy production) remain comparatively underrepresented. This distribution suggests that visiting young people's value perspectives focus on the unique natural features of mountain environments and their personal connections. Moreover, they might not identify with or value the broader ecological and societal functions that sustain local communities and population in surrounding lowlands. These findings highlight how visiting young people perceive and value mountain nature and demonstrate an innovative, indirect use of the Nature Future Framework.