Regenerating Communities While Healing the Earth – Allying for Ecosystem Restoration
The EcoRestoration Alliance (ERA) hosts a monthly town hall meeting, something you should find your way to if you haven’t already, this most recent instance was special. John D. Liu and Aude Peronne of Ecosystem Restoration Communities both gave presentations of their work with the global movement to restore landscapes. John shared some of his lessons from decades of rehabilitating ecosystems, reiterating the urgency to grow ecological literacy and act collectively. Aude complemented his presentation with discussions of healing economic systems and building holistic local networks and hyper-local currencies. The overall session was unique in how these two speakers (longtime collaborators with Global Earth Repair) handle the human and ecological ends of this enormous and complex ongoing struggle.
In this presentation, John urges us to consider our place in the context of ecological and evolutionary and even cosmic time and get some perspective on our role in the cosmic play. He highlights his restoration work in the Loess Plateau in China and around the world while explaining the importance of restoring soil, water, biodiversity and stability in the landscape. According to John, true wealth is in biodiversity, not in human-created economies, and we have a moral imperative to change the arc of history here and now.
Aude has lived among Indigenous communities as well as ecosystem restoration communities doing grassroots work to heal the planet. She expressed her experiences through these locations and endeavors, and goes through her current work in Kenya developing grassroots economic networks. Her focus is on reclaiming local economies to replace the extractive colonial global paradigm and teaching locals to learn from nature and develop Indigenous skill sets. By remembering old ways and upholding intergenerational learning, villages can stay vibrant and resist economic colonization while supporting their local environments – it all goes together!
Please enjoy this awesome session, and if you like what you see, consider signing up for the monthly town hall with EcoRestoration Alliance – and looking deeper into Ecosystem Restoration Communities – and signing up for updates from both!
Photo of cheetahs in their ecosystem by Saifuddin Ratlamwala from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/graceful-wild-leopards-on-grassy-savanna-3849687/
