Becoming Better Neighbours – Coexistence with Wildlife and Wild Spaces
August 4, 2022
Wild Lands Advocate article by: Nathaniel Schmidt, AWA Director
Click here for a pdf version of the article.
The places humans live aren’t often top of mind when we think about protecting wild spaces and wildlife. For centuries, our Western European culture has seen nature as somewhere “out there,” separate from our own “civilised” habits. Nature was something to be controlled, harnessed, resisted and sometimes even feared. It was not to be welcomed into our communities. This mentality has been reflected in the European cultures of past centuries, where the natural world was a source of aesthetic beauty, but quickly disposed of when it got in the way of what we see as progress.