It’s Biodiversity Month. Let’s look at the critical shift to achieve Nature Positive: from Ego-Centric to Eco-Centric
It’s true that for us to move closer to achieving Nature Positive we must first clearly understand what Nature Positive is. However, what we must also grasp is that a societal-level shift in how humans view the world, and how humans fit within the world is also required. This notion is best explained using the concepts of ego-centric and eco-centric views of the relationship we humans have with nature (see image below[1]):
To explain the ego-centric view of the world, we can look to a quote from the great Sir David Attenborough who observed that:
We moved from being a part of nature to being apart from nature [2]
The ego-centric perspective fails to recognise our connection to all life around us, not just other humans, and our dependency on nature for our survival as well as our comfort. It is this view that has contributed to our current global climate change and biodiversity crises.
We are totally dependent on the natural world. It supplies us with every oxygen-laden breath we take and every mouthful of food we eat. But we are currently damaging it so profoundly that many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown [3]
This quote (again from Sir David Attenborough) is taken from the foreword to the influential Dasgupta Review [4]. This publication is an independent, global review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta and commissioned the UK Treasury.
It is not only environmentalists and conservationists who are increasingly calling for a need to incorporate nature as a fundamental part of our institutions, systems and infrastructure. Leading economists, like Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, are echoing the sentiment that nature cannot be ignored in any economy. So, the concept of an eco-centric view of nature is gaining momentum.
A major coalition of organisations, including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Wildlife Fund, submitted a paper to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) arguing for adoption of a Nature Positive Global Goal for Nature as a means to “… continually improve [nature as] the context for all life”[5]. Locke et al (2020) state that:
A nature-positive world is one in which the dominant importance of nature to humanity is recognised and human actions are governed accordingly [3]
This is the eco-centric view of the world and is consistent with many traditional people’s views of the relationship between people and nature [3]. This should be familiar to us too, either as Australians who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or who have heard about First Nations peoples’ connection to Country and its centrality in culture, lore, identity and health.
So, how do we achieve this conceptual shift? At its essence, a nature positive outcome is going to require much more than just science and a focus on biodiversity and the environment. It requires a multidisciplinary approach to understanding what changes we need to make and the best way to bring about such change collaboratively:
- Social Engagement
- Ecology, Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management
- Heritage and Archaeology
- Environmental Management and Sustainability & ESG
- Hydrogeology and Water Management
Together, we can find a way to enhance environmental health and social wellness for a nature positive outcomes.
[1] Steffen Lehmann, “Reconnecting with Nature: Designing Urban Spaces in Balance with Green Space,” Proceedings from the 27th World Congress of Architects, 2021, https://www.acsa-arch.org/proceedings/International%20Proceedings/ACSA.Intl.2021/ACSA.Intl.2021.44.pdf.
[2] Attenborough, D. 2020. A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future. Grand Central Publishing:
[3] Attenborough, D. 2021. Foreword. In: The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. Dasgupta, P. Published by HM Treasury: London.
[4] Partha Dasgupta, “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review” (HM Treasury, 2021), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/602e92b2e90e07660f807b47/The_Economics_of_Biodiversity_The_Dasgupta_Review_Full_Report.pdf.
[5] Harvey Locke et al., “A Nature-Positive World,” Report Submitted to COP15, 2020, https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/NaturePositive_GlobalGoalCEO.pdf#:~:text=The%20Global%20Goal%20for%20Nature%20identifies%20the%20level%20of%20ambition.
