Our Vision
The long-term vision of Fertile Ground Conservancy is a world in which human abuse of natural communities has ceased and the relationship between the human and more-than-human worlds has shifted to one of dynamic equilibrium and healing. We envision a world in which humans have "re-membered" themselves as humble participants in the community of life on earth. To achieve this vision will require a fundamental shift in human economics and an abandonment of human supremacist worldviews. It will also require a dramatic re-imagining of our relationship with the land.
Unfortunately, we see little evidence that the current global economic system will voluntarily stop prioritizing profit and infinite growth over the health of the planet. Nor do we believe that the proposed technological fixes (such as “green” energy and mass production of electric vehicles) are real answers to the problems we face and that these so-called "solutions" do more to perpetuate earth-destroying activities and maintain the status quo of unjust relationships (all while making a few people very rich).
In the broadest sense, we believe there is an immediate need for two complementary areas of work: Stopping the harm and protecting what remains.
In the broadest sense, we believe there is an immediate need for two complementary areas of work: Stopping the harm and protecting what remains.
For over a decade---as the Fertile Ground Environmental Institute---we have educated and organized towards the first of these goals - the goal of stopping harm. We have pushed for the formation of a serious, biocentric resistance movement that starts from a place of loyalty to the natural world. We have promoted critical analysis of historical social struggles and have shared lessons from those struggles in an effort to help the contemporary environmental movement become a more formidable force of change. By organizing the Earth at Risk conference series we provided a platform for leaders from indigenous, feminist, anti-war, anti-racist, and environmental movements to come together, share experiences, and form new alliances in order to strengthen our collective work.
While the work of resistance is more necessary now than ever before, equally necessary is the preventative work of protecting land. As species after species is pushed into extinction due to the unrelenting expansion of industrial civilization---day after day, month after month, year after year---it is imperative that we work to protect existing biodiversity and keep as many evolutionary doors open as possible. If, for example, we can ensure that marbled murrelets are still here in five years, there's a chance they may still be here in twenty.
This work is about much more than the protection of threatened species and habitat, however. It is about creating space for healing. It is about falling in love with the world and fighting to protect what you love. We believe that in order to be effective in our work we must let go of our identification with the dominant culture and rejoin the living world, extending our sense of self to include the wider community of life. Until we understand that nonhuman beings are not just instruments with which we can meet conservation goals, but relations with whom we share a common future---whose lives are just as important to them as ours are to us---our work for ecological justice will be woefully inadequate.
As we work to shift the human relationship to the more-than-human, we also seek to strengthen our relationships with each other. It is in partnership that we will be most effective in the work to protect the places and beings we love. Through education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing we aim to inspire individuals and communities to take action in their daily lives, and to engage in civic participation to influence policies that prioritize the well-being of natural communities and future generations.
If nothing else, we hope to inspire those who engage with us to act, in whatever small ways they can. We believe that the next big thing in the movement to save the planet will be many little things. It will be each one of us picking a place, falling in love with it, and doing whatever it takes to protect it.
As we work to shift the human relationship to the more-than-human, we also seek to strengthen our relationships with each other. It is in partnership that we will be most effective in the work to protect the places and beings we love. Through education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing we aim to inspire individuals and communities to take action in their daily lives, and to engage in civic participation to influence policies that prioritize the well-being of natural communities and future generations.
If nothing else, we hope to inspire those who engage with us to act, in whatever small ways they can. We believe that the next big thing in the movement to save the planet will be many little things. It will be each one of us picking a place, falling in love with it, and doing whatever it takes to protect it.
