Ecological Commons
What are the Ecological Commons? And how can they help humans and nature?
The Commons were taken away from the people, severing people’s connection with the natural world around them, and the understanding that all of our lives depend on nature.
The Ecological Commons is a reimagining of the commons - bringing in new commoning rights, with rights of nature, placing humans back into nature. We must learn to live within ecological limits, and we must relearn that we’re not separate for nature, and can be a beneficial keystone species. But to achieve this, we need rights and responsibilities returned to communities.
New Rights
We are currently exploring what these might be, but will be likely to include;
Commoning Rights
Clean water, soil and air
Ecological restoration
Local food, energy and materials production
Climate resilience including flood, wildfire and drought prevention
Cultural gathering rights
Participatory and transparent democracy
Access
Rights of Nature
Clean water, soil and air
Ecological functioning
Biodiversity
Not to be polluted
Healthy relationship with humans
A voice in decision-making
Why Commons?
The Anglo-Celtic Isles have a long history of commoning, a history that has been littered with attempts to separate people from land - to break communities, and people’s ability to live from the land, not needing to engage in capitalist-based labour. The commons that have survived are beleaguered; abandoned, underused, or overgrazed and over-extracted.
There is an opportunity to turn the commons back to what they were supposed to be - giving the common people what they need to survive. These days most people do not need to gather firewood and clay or graze animals. What people need is clean water, clean air, clean soil, carbon sequestration, flood, drought and wildfire prevention, biodiversity and bioabundance.
We don’t need to invent a new way of connecting to, or having rights and responsibilities towards land and water. It already exists, though it has been skewed through centuries of attrition and well-meaning, though devastating law changes. We can reclaim the commons, reconnect people to land, and so allow communities to step into guardianship of our ailing land and waters.
Why Rights of Nature?
Common rights alone is still very anthropocentric, focusing on what humans need from a landscape. This thinking is what has driven us to the metacrisis that we collectively face. Simply putting control back into the hands of the local community is not enough - a fundamental shift in worldview is required if we are to make real, lasting change.
Rights of Nature (also known as more-than-human rights) provides a framework for this. The recognition of rivers, lakes and land as non-human persons, or granting rights to them has been successfully achieved in many countries around the world, including the UK. By including RoN into the suite of ‘Ecological Common Rights’, we set the basis for a deep ecology view of humans within an ecological community that spreads beyond humans.
Lough Neagh
We are currently researching how the ecological commons might work at Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland.
The Lough is facing a severe ecological crisis driven by long-term pollution and environmental mismanagement, with many locals unable to effect the change needed to save the Lough. We are exploring with members of the local community if this model could provide the change that is so desperately needed.