Restoration and cooperation for flourishing socio-ecological landscapes

ABSTRACT Environmental law is ontologically committed to competition. This is evidenced by its use of framing concepts like sustainability which assume that landscapes have always had the carrying capacity to regenerate on their own. The Anthropocene, if anything, points to the deep entanglements that exist in nature and for human beings. Whilst competition explains evolutionary trends, there is much evidence pointing to the idea that cooperation and symbiosis amongst living things is a much better indicator of long-term change in the natural environment. Deep entanglements are better supported through cooperation than competition. Drawing on ideas from scientific research on symbiosis, this paper argues that environmental law is missing deep ontological commitments to cooperation between human beings and the natural world. Restoration, approached not just as a technical rules-based response to damage and degradation, but as an activity requiring cooperation with the natural world would potentially better support flourishing socio-ecological landscapes.