Adequate consideration of the complexity of multifunctional landscapes in research, management, and adaptation to climate change demands effective collaboration. However, identifying bridges between stakeholders to guide partnership building remains a challenge, particularly in balancing shared objectives with diverse values and interests. We propose a multi-stakeholder framework to identify 'theme bridges', which are co-produced priority themes designed to connect different decision-makers and to guide the initial critical phase of forming multi-stakeholder partnerships targeting sustainable development. Grounded in the ecosystem services-human well-being nexus approach, the framework catalyzes interest-based dialogues among stakeholders and integrates diverse interests, knowledge, values, and rules into partnership design. The framework was applied in a dryland social-ecological system in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico. We conducted eight multi-stakeholder workshops, where we jointly looked through the lens of stakeholder-specific, preferred ecosystem services (ES) and their roles in human well-being (HW). Future scenarios considering climate change conditions were also explored collectively to identify alternative and compensatory ES, potential conflicts, and opportunities for collaboration. Multi-stakeholder network analysis demonstrated a diversity of shared, diverging, and complementary preferences for ecosystem services among stakeholders. Fresh water access emerged as a key 'theme bridge', alongside water regulation and water cycle, linking them to HW dimensions at the personal (health, source of income, leisure) and community level (network, innovation, social security). Under a climate change scenario, stakeholder preferences shifted, with recreation and ecotourism emerging as alternatives to compensate for the loss of food and fiber availability. Here, diversifying livestock production with service-based livelihoods emerged as a suitable climate change adaptation strategy. Our framework is a transdisciplinary tool that seeks to weave individual stakeholder interests with a shared action-oriented vision, grounding emerging partnerships on local needs, interests, and site-specific characteristics, capable of supporting collaborative governance and fostering innovative, adaptive strategies for long-term sustainable development.