The importance of civil society and public participation in tackling climate change is becoming increasingly important.1 Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) 2020 State of Natural Resources Report supports this idea by stating that it is only by re-considering the importance of civil society that ‘Wales can address the causes of environmental degradation at their source’. There needs to be a change in the actions and attitudes of society and the narratives we all follow. NRW is reinforced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 2019 report which concludes that a transition to a sustainable world is technically and economically possible but will require collective and individual creativity to re-imagine the way we live. The Welsh Government calls for ‘every citizen, community, group and business in Wales to embed the climate emergency in the way they think, work, play and travel’. Juliet Pietsch and Ian McAlister point out that ‘for the advanced democracies, public opinion is a key element in developing an appropriate policy response’ to mitigate climate change.5 Additionally demands are being made that decision-makers should grow ‘attentive to the varied ways that knowledge about landscapes is acquired, and to how different interest groups navigate change’. Below I will provide case studies of research methodologies that can help researchers better understand local dynamics and the compounding narratives which occur in changing landscapes. My aim is to inspire colleagues to reach out beyond the tentative boundaries of our respective disciplines by utilising alternative methodologies to collaborate with local stakeholders. I believe that questioning and frustrating current local decision-making frameworks is the only way to secure a more democratic approach to negotiating landscape change during the climate and nature emergency.