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activity that affects nature. The key is to shift from the emphasis in contemporary
economics and law on satisfying desires and generating profits through efficiency
and growth to a rediscovery of the indigenous wisdom of sufficiency and taking no
more than what is truly needed (Kimmerer 2013). Enough, not more, is the guiding
principle (Capra and Mattei 2015). To achieve this, ecological law should contain
the spark of competition and markets within an engine of cooperation, solidarity
and community (Brown and Garver 2009). Ecological economics and the degrowth
movement provide many ingredients and recipes for doing so: for example, progressive taxation, cooperative enterprises instead of profit-driven corporations, direct
democracy, guaranteed basic income, valorizing care work, producing and consuming locally, promoting sharing, and increasing the commons (Kallis 2018).
4 Attaching or Re-attaching to Place in an Altered World
Humanity has no choice but to take the world as it exists now and to work from there
toward a desired future. Taking the world as it is means accepting that places and
societies exist that humans have altered over the expanse of history. Cities and other
dense human settlements that have sprouted around the globe since the Neolithic
transition 10,000 years ago are an obvious example. Altered places also include
novel ecosystems altered irreversibly by human activities, yet now with structures
and functioning that support life in new but ongoing ecological relationships
(Seasted et al. 2008). People long ago turned vast forests in Scotland, Iceland,
Newfoundland and other northern places into tree-scarce heaths, bogs and peatlands, some with an astonishing level of biodiversity that did not exist in the time of
forests (Huntley et al. 1997; Hambrecht 2015). Through human agency, exotic species have firmly established themselves across the globe, sometimes with devastating effects on the ecosystems they invaded, and often there is no going back.
Starlings in North America, stoats in New Zealand, brown snakes in Guam, and
rabbits in Australia are some infamous examples.
Looking to the future, a concept like ecological integrity must be broad enough
to include at least some of these altered places and societies, especially where they
are, or with ecological or eco-cultural restoration viably could be, life-enhancing
and vital (Garver 2019). The essential element of any meaningful and enduring
attachment or re-attachment to place is a deep commitment to relating to the community of all life of the place as a life-affirming, life-enhancing and respectful member. This appreciation and awareness of what gives a place its unique and sacred
identify is at the heart of the sense of communion on which this notion of membership is based. Allowing this posture of awe and reverence only where nature is
pristine and relatively free of humans is no longer possible, and so it is an attitude
to nurture in even the most altered corners of Earth.
Eco-cultural restoration is an approach to make the best of Earth’s mosaic of
altered and relatively unaltered places. As an applied science, eco-cultural restoration necessarily involves intentional interventions with a goal in mind (Garver
Promoting Human Attachment to Place in Ecological Law
activity that affects nature. The key is to shift from the emphasis in contemporary
economics and law on satisfying desires and generating profits through efficiency
and growth to a rediscovery of the indigenous wisdom of sufficiency and taking no
more than what is truly needed (Kimmerer 2013). Enough, not more, is the guiding
principle (Capra and Mattei 2015). To achieve this, ecological law should contain
the spark of competition and markets within an engine of cooperation, solidarity
and community (Brown and Garver 2009). Ecological economics and the degrowth
movement provide many ingredients and recipes for doing so: for example, progressive taxation, cooperative enterprises instead of profit-driven corporations, direct
democracy, guaranteed basic income, valorizing care work, producing and consuming locally, promoting sharing, and increasing the commons (Kallis 2018).
4 Attaching or Re-attaching to Place in an Altered World
Humanity has no choice but to take the world as it exists now and to work from there
toward a desired future. Taking the world as it is means accepting that places and
societies exist that humans have altered over the expanse of history. Cities and other
dense human settlements that have sprouted around the globe since the Neolithic
transition 10,000 years ago are an obvious example. Altered places also include
novel ecosystems altered irreversibly by human activities, yet now with structures
and functioning that support life in new but ongoing ecological relationships
(Seasted et al. 2008). People long ago turned vast forests in Scotland, Iceland,
Newfoundland and other northern places into tree-scarce heaths, bogs and peatlands, some with an astonishing level of biodiversity that did not exist in the time of
forests (Huntley et al. 1997; Hambrecht 2015). Through human agency, exotic species have firmly established themselves across the globe, sometimes with devastating effects on the ecosystems they invaded, and often there is no going back.
Starlings in North America, stoats in New Zealand, brown snakes in Guam, and
rabbits in Australia are some infamous examples.
Looking to the future, a concept like ecological integrity must be broad enough
to include at least some of these altered places and societies, especially where they
are, or with ecological or eco-cultural restoration viably could be, life-enhancing
and vital (Garver 2019). The essential element of any meaningful and enduring
attachment or re-attachment to place is a deep commitment to relating to the community of all life of the place as a life-affirming, life-enhancing and respectful member. This appreciation and awareness of what gives a place its unique and sacred
identify is at the heart of the sense of communion on which this notion of membership is based. Allowing this posture of awe and reverence only where nature is
pristine and relatively free of humans is no longer possible, and so it is an attitude
to nurture in even the most altered corners of Earth.
Eco-cultural restoration is an approach to make the best of Earth’s mosaic of
altered and relatively unaltered places. As an applied science, eco-cultural restoration necessarily involves intentional interventions with a goal in mind (Garver
Promoting Human Attachment to Place in Ecological Law