For me, local slow travel is one of the great things I do. Here’s some of the reasons why I think it’s the best way to travel (in no particular order): Walking, cycling and paddling allows me to travel IN a landscape, not THROUGH one. I get to meet people. I get to learn about their landscapes. I can contribute economically, socially and sometimes even politically at the local level. Knowing more about the ways people live in their landscapes, …
“Trying to answer the question ‘Does the Yeti exist’ is nothing new. To my mind though, this is the wrong question. The bigger and more important question? ‘What if the things that gave rise to the possibilities of its existence no longer exist’?” “Why isn’t the Mirka here?” I was in a remote valley deep within the Himalayas, discussing my list of locally endangered animals with a group of herders. “They’re difficult to find. But you can if you …
People have thought in sectors for so long – the agricultural sector, the mining sector, the water sector, the forestry sector for example – that we have become very good at compartmentalising things. This perhaps isn’t such a surprise given the dominant values of scientific/economic analyses which underpins much research, policy-making and decision-making (and have done so for a very long time). Think about how things would change if, instead of seeing things through the lenses of sectors, we saw …
‘I hadn’t seen them for so long I’d forgotten all about them’ the fisherman told me. ‘Then about eight years ago, I saw one. I knew then that we had brought the otters home’. Sitting in the hall with the local fishers and some of their families, it was hard to disagree – the sea-otters were home. They were the topic of conversation, framed by a pride they had returned, pride that the community was absolutely crucial to their return …
I’ve recently been working on a series of projects linking, in various ways, community-based adaptation to climate change, or CBA. These approaches highlight two very important assumptions: 1) communities are capable of understanding, and acting on, climate change impacts. This doesn’t mean that this can occur without support or facilitation or capacity building or knowledge enhancement. 2) communities therefore are not passive in the face of the impacts of climate change. This in turn means the development of projects, policies or approaches …
I recently put a post up (available here) where I make some points about the importance of taking landscapes as a basis for thinking about sustainable futures. In that post, I’ve highlighted the following: thinking about landscapes actually integrates our thinking and understanding the foundations of landscapes are ecosystems landscapes let us understand the intersection of human values/activities and ecological processes this in turn means that a mosaic of uses, values and ecosystems is important to sustainable futures by understanding this, …
I remember not that many years ago driving through one of the most beautiful valleys, at least to my mind, of northeast Victoria in Australia. It was an early Spring day, the river of the valley was full, the pastures were green from the winter rain, and the deciduous trees were getting their first sprigs of growth. The light had that soft yellow of late afternoon in this part of the world, and the black and white cows were lit …
I was just reading an article on-line from an Australian newspaper where the author asked the question: What is Australia’s climate policy? It was a reminder of the changed political (and as a result, conservation/sustainability) dynamics within Australia. This is no real surprise and the deeper reminder is actually about the fluid and dynamic relationship between political systems/political power, people’s socio-economic and cultural values and actions, and the quest for sustainable futures. As someone who has worked at this intersection …
In sociology we have a really important concept – social change agents. These are individuals who engage with change. The thing about the concept of social change agents is that we all are them. Through our actions we engage with people, society etc – we accept the status quo or we question the status quo, depending on how we see things and what we want to do. Society doesn’t ‘just happen’. It’s a product of all these interactions with one …