Balancing Preservation and Restoration for Environmental Conservation

We need to restore our own ecology.

That doesn’t just mean fencing off parts of the earth into “nature conservation” spaces because, as this week’s guest Laura Martin points out, what does that say about the space on the other side of the fence? That human spaces are unnatural? Or that they don’t deserve to be protected?

Laura is an environmental historian, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, and author of the extraordinary book, Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration. She joins me to discuss how policies create crises, not just abstract notions of neoliberalism, fossil-fuelled capitalism, and industrialisation. She says that environmental policies offer us alternatives to our present. So which ones can we use to build a world that protects both ourselves and the species with whom we share this planet?

We then discuss at length the difference between conservation and restoration, with ecological restoration—rewilding—offering a politics of care that sees humanity collaborate with fellow species to promote ecological well-being everywhere, from the grasslands to the inner city.

© Rachel Donald

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