Biosphere Futures (https://biospherefutures.net/) is a new online database to collect and discover scenario studies from across the world, with a specific focus on scenarios that explicitly incorporate interdependencies between humans and their supporting ecosystems. It provides access to a globally diverse collection of case studies that includes most ecosystems and regions, enabling exploration of the multifaceted ways in which the future might unfold. Together, the case studies illuminate the diversity and plurality of people’s expectations and aspirations for the future. The objective of Biosphere Futures is to promote the use of scenarios for sustainable development of the biosphere and to foster a community of practice around social-ecological scenarios. We do so by facilitating the assessment, synthesis, and comparative analysis of scenario case studies, pointing to relevant resources, and by helping practitioners and researchers to disseminate and showcase their own work. This article begins by outlining the rationale behind the creation of the database, followed by an introduction to its functionality and the criteria employed for selecting case studies. Subsequently, we present a synthesis of the first 100 case studies included in the scenarios database, highlighting emerging patterns and identifying potential avenues for further research. Finally, given that broader utilization and contributions to the database will enhance the achievement of Biosphere Futures’ objectives, we invite the creators of social-ecological scenarios to contribute additional case studies. By expanding the database’s breadth and depth, we can collectively foster a more nuanced understanding of the possible trajectories of our biosphere and enable better decision making for sustainable development.

The practice of envisioning the future has deep roots in the past. Across the continent of Africa, there are traditions of oral storytelling, griots, folklore, and indigenous speculation that offer guidance on how to live in the present and orient towards better futures. Whilst these traditions can act as navigational compasses, they are not prevalent in conventional futuring methodologies. Rather, we are surrounded by perspectives of thinking about the future as a projection of current trends. In this perspective, we offer a new heuristic, the Entangled Time Tree, to the body of futuring approaches for how to acknowledge multiple pasts and alternative ways of conceptualizing futures. We recognise that in a decolonial approach, it is necessary to consider a multiplicity of pasts that lead to diverse presents and futures; a recognition that we see reflected in Africanfuturism and in traditional storytelling that further offer diverse ways of understanding temporality and futures. We propose that the diverse forms of storytelling across the African continent constitute critically underexplored forms of knowledge for enabling a decolonial approach to futuring through three mechanisms -stories as power, stories as healing, and stories as diversification. We argue that centering these stories will allow the exploration of more just and ecologically sustainable futures. We recognise that this is just a first, but we hope a promising, step towards a longer term commitment of creating more diverse, imaginative visions and pathways of a decolonial future that will be useful not only on the African continent, but globally.