3.8 Applied Historical Ecology and the Principle
of Plenitude
Applied historical ecology would involve learning lessons from past primary landscape transformations that have persisted into the present and that encourage rather
than diminish diversity. An example is landesque capital, which is “any investment
in land with an anticipated life well beyond that of the present crop, or crop cycle”
(Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Håkansson and Widgren 2014). Applied historical
ecology can find landesque capital and interpret its usage over time, including the
longue durée. The longue durée in historical ecology is the long term of primary
landscape transformation wherein speciose results (such as wetlands, forests, and
wildlands, in Ellis’s [2013] sense) have been retained. The decipherment of ancient
knowledge used in maintaining these, via secondary landscape transformation, will
require distinguishing authentic human-mediated disturbance from bio-geological
phenomena occurring by chance. Historical–ecological interpretation is of paramount importance here, because it can suggest pathways for conurbations to maintain in situ sustainability, with organic non-GMO food sources and food production
nearby (Altieri 2004).
The Earth is going through a tsunami of species extinctions, but the solution may
not be only to demarcate and designate new conservation areas where people cannot
reside, such as wildlands seemingly untouched by human hands. The ideology of
total exclusion of humans from conservation zones is broken, especially in the
tropics (Marvier 2014). Conservation is clearly a key to fulfillment of the principle
of plenitude (the classical concept that holds that the more diversity, the better, as per
Lovejoy 1936), but as a discipline it could benefit from applied historical ecology.
Applied historical ecology can mine the traditional environmental knowledge (TEK)
that maintains landesque capital, the forebears of which built stone walls, field
drains, terraces, sluices, water meadows, and irrigation channels, and that
implemented land reclamation systems of the past, still in use today. Applied
historical ecology may seem to have a similarity to the concept of resilience
of ecosystems (Holling 1978), but it is not the case that all the lands in need of
protection will ever acquire it, nor is it possible to escape the conundrum of
protecting a landscape by not doing anything to, or with it. The new conservation
that is needed (Kareiva and Marvier 2012; Marvier 2014), in other words, could
make use of applied historical ecology, which can serve as a means for designing
landscapes wherein innovations in society and nature can be fruitfully explored for a
better future, both of the conurbation and its hinterland. Our best analogs are not in
nature or nonhuman species, but rather in our own, and its past manipulations of and
interactions with multiple primary and secondary landscapes. Applied historical
ecology can suggest pathways for alternative development and the use of landscapes
while at the same time conforming to the principle of plenitude.
42
W. Balée
of Plenitude
Applied historical ecology would involve learning lessons from past primary landscape transformations that have persisted into the present and that encourage rather
than diminish diversity. An example is landesque capital, which is “any investment
in land with an anticipated life well beyond that of the present crop, or crop cycle”
(Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Håkansson and Widgren 2014). Applied historical
ecology can find landesque capital and interpret its usage over time, including the
longue durée. The longue durée in historical ecology is the long term of primary
landscape transformation wherein speciose results (such as wetlands, forests, and
wildlands, in Ellis’s [2013] sense) have been retained. The decipherment of ancient
knowledge used in maintaining these, via secondary landscape transformation, will
require distinguishing authentic human-mediated disturbance from bio-geological
phenomena occurring by chance. Historical–ecological interpretation is of paramount importance here, because it can suggest pathways for conurbations to maintain in situ sustainability, with organic non-GMO food sources and food production
nearby (Altieri 2004).
The Earth is going through a tsunami of species extinctions, but the solution may
not be only to demarcate and designate new conservation areas where people cannot
reside, such as wildlands seemingly untouched by human hands. The ideology of
total exclusion of humans from conservation zones is broken, especially in the
tropics (Marvier 2014). Conservation is clearly a key to fulfillment of the principle
of plenitude (the classical concept that holds that the more diversity, the better, as per
Lovejoy 1936), but as a discipline it could benefit from applied historical ecology.
Applied historical ecology can mine the traditional environmental knowledge (TEK)
that maintains landesque capital, the forebears of which built stone walls, field
drains, terraces, sluices, water meadows, and irrigation channels, and that
implemented land reclamation systems of the past, still in use today. Applied
historical ecology may seem to have a similarity to the concept of resilience
of ecosystems (Holling 1978), but it is not the case that all the lands in need of
protection will ever acquire it, nor is it possible to escape the conundrum of
protecting a landscape by not doing anything to, or with it. The new conservation
that is needed (Kareiva and Marvier 2012; Marvier 2014), in other words, could
make use of applied historical ecology, which can serve as a means for designing
landscapes wherein innovations in society and nature can be fruitfully explored for a
better future, both of the conurbation and its hinterland. Our best analogs are not in
nature or nonhuman species, but rather in our own, and its past manipulations of and
interactions with multiple primary and secondary landscapes. Applied historical
ecology can suggest pathways for alternative development and the use of landscapes
while at the same time conforming to the principle of plenitude.
42
W. Balée