To Save Land, We Must Save the People

3/14/2016

Photo by John Cotterman

Wendell Berry, again, is perceptive in his observations, here excerpted from his 2013 speech to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and reproduced in his latest published collection of essays, Our Only World (2015):

“If we want to save the land, we must save the people who belong to the land. If we want to save the people, we must save the land the people belong to…. The connection is necessary of course because it is inescapable. All of us who are living owe our lives directly to our connection to the land…. I am not talking about the connection that is implied by such a term as ‘environmentalism.’ I am talking about the connection we make economically, by work, by living, by making a living….
The loss of a saving connection between the land and the people begins and continues with the destruction of locally based household economics…
(T)he most effective means of local self-determination would be a well-developed local economy based upon the use and protection of local resources, including local human intelligence and skills….And here we realize that a local economy, supplying local needs so far as possible from local fields and woodlands, is necessarily diverse….
(T)he fact is that if the land and the people are ever to be saved, they will be saved by local people enacting together a proper respect for themselves and their places.”
--Chuck Roe, President, SCP

About Viewpoint

This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite your viewpoint on the following questions:
--How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
--How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
--Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
--Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?
Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.