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  • From: webmaster@pfaf.org
  • To: permaculture_uk@yahoogroups.co.uk, Yahoo <pfaf@yahoogroups.com>, PC USA <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [permaculture_uk] NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
  • Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:35:05 +0000

Mark Fisher wrote:
My response to DEFRA's draft Vision on the Natural Environment.

Link is http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/natres/vision.htm

Discussion Topic 1: Why we value the environment
The values given in the Vision for the natural environment are characterized by an anthropocentric resourcism that objectifies all of nature, including wildlife, as human commodities to be used with little restriction. This is perhaps inevitable when the context of the Vision given by Defra is Natural Resource Protection, so that the values are related to resources for human benefit and survival.

The same though occured to me when reading the vision. Man is very much
at the centre of the vision. We value nature because it benifits man.

Posibly the best counter to this view point comes from the Deep Ecology
movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Ecology

One of the principals of the movement is:
The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman Life on Earth have
value in themselves (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value). These
values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human
purposes.

Notions of wilderness and wild lands also counter this notion. Having
been connected to 84 acres of land which has been allowed to run wild
has convinced me that the only reason we activly manage land is for our
benifit. We manage land to produce food; we manage land to allow humans
access; we manage land to preserve species and habitats which we humans
consider important; we manage land to say to other humans "look how good
I am at managing this land". (Indeed I've been non-managing land to say
look how good I am at non-managing land).

Nature will be perfectly happy to be left to its own device. Leave
nature to its self and an eco system will emerge. It may not be an eco
system we like; it may not fit with our notions of how landscape should
look; we may grumble as we have to fight our way through a mass of
brambles; we may rage at the dear which eat the trees we so carefully
planted. Wild lands can be truely challenging for man and our instinctive desire to control.

Wilson, as an entomologist, would probably declare that we can find nature wherever we look – he has said "Most children have a bug period, and I never grew out of mine". Our appreciation of the natural environment thus depends on how "untrammeled" (wild?) nature has to be to meet the needs of individuals and society – and as importantly the needs of wild nature.

I had not so much a bug period, but a wild period. At a young age I was keen to leave the grass under my climing frame to grow, just to see what happened!

Many countries have a wildland philosophy and policies that spring from it. Our lack of such a philosophy is ultimately due to the overwhelming historical cultural influence on landscape in Britain. However, organizations in Scotland have begun to grapple with this, producing policies or statements on wild land, i.e. John Muir Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and National Trust for Scotland. There is also a definition of wildland in Scottish planning policy guidance.

Here I differ a little from Mark. The John Muir Trust et al. Seem to focus on the large expanses of Scotish uplands. But do wild lands need to always be on a grand scale in remote parts of the country.
I feel there is a need for wild lands of all shapes and sizes and throughout the country. Small plots of wildland near our towns and cities can provide natural oasises and greater accessibility for humans.
There is, however, a scale effect the larger a piece of land the greater the diversity of habitats that will emerge.

The other place I differ from the large trusts is the issue of grazing animals, namely sheep. These are probably the greatest shapers of our land scape today. The difference you see between land grazed by sheep and land they have been excluded from is vast. Sheep are just as much a monoculture as a field of rape.

Rich
--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
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  • Re: [permaculture] [permaculture_uk] NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, webmaster, 11/16/2005

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