“The future conservation efforts should aim to strengthen our emotional connection with nature” | Image source: Getty Images/Istockphoto
The term “ecology is a permanent economy” is popular with environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, not just a slogan. This profoundly reminds the basic fact that human prosperity is inseparable from ecological health. Indeed, it is impossible to protect their economic development without utilizing natural resources and economic stability. When we face serious challenges like climate change and rapid biodiversity loss, we have to ask ourselves whether we truly understand and accept this idea.
Achieve the right balance
Understanding the complexity of nature is at the heart of science. In this pursuit, humans make tremendous efforts through observation, experimentation and modeling, as this understanding is crucial to addressing environmental challenges such as climate change and informing sustainable practices. Although these scientific discussions are valuable, what we need to focus on is a more urgent and fundamental fact: ecology is a real economy – our survival, security and progress depend on it. In short, this is probably the clearest way to define sustainability – finding the right balance between protecting the environment and supporting economic development. Without this balance, neither the environment nor the economy will flourish in the long run.
Although part of the animal kingdom, human evolution has led to an increasing disconnect from nature through the process of civilization. This disconnect from nature has been identified as the cause of sustained biodiversity loss (recent intergovernmental science policy platform in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services or IPBES Transformational Change Report).
In the early stages of human history, a nomadic lifestyle forced individuals to rely on and utilize natural resources only based on their basic daily survival needs. Over time, this individual-centered use of resources evolved into collective consumption designed to meet the growing community needs. As human society expands and organizes into countries, this demand further expands to meet the needs of the entire country. Ultimately, this advancement sparked global competition, where countries began to leverage nature to not only meet current needs but also provide resources for future developments. Unlike humans, no other species in the animal kingdom exhibits this large-scale, expected pattern of natural resources. Other animals live in harmony with their environment, taking only what they need to survive immediately without disrupting the long-term balance of the ecosystem in which they live.
New complications
The ever-increasing cycle of human consumption and global competition has put unprecedented pressure on the planet’s ecosystems and significantly accelerated the pace of climate change, a natural phenomenon that today human activities dangerously amplify the phenomenon of climate change. To address these growing environmental challenges, nature-based solutions are widely advocated in global conservation efforts. These approaches aim to leverage the inherent resilience of ecosystems to mitigate climate impacts, restore biodiversity and support sustainable development. However, a paradox emerges: we continue to use nature to meet our needs and greed while relying on the same natural system as a buffer for the consequences of this exploitation. This dual dependence has the potential to create deeper ecological imbalances and may complicate the ability to effectively resolve climate crisis.
In this case, rather than just trying to understand the complexity of the ecological system from a scientific perspective, and to recognize a basic truth, this is an important issue of the ecological economy. Recognizing this principle changes our view from short-term exploitation to long-term management, positioning ecological health as a limitation, but the basis for human survival, economic stability and climate resilience.
This awareness is not only timely, but it is crucial to face ongoing environmental crises and shape a sustainable future. Only through this reconstruction can humans transform from reactive protection to active planetary sustainability. The climate crisis is not only a scientific challenge. This is the moral and estimate of existence of the ecological basis of our existence.
Need to reconnect with nature
Climate change and changes in biodiversity distribution patterns are nothing new to the earth. However, due to unsustainable development activities in humanity in the past, it now occurs at a rate that is harmful to planetary biodiversity, including humans. Therefore, the changes we need must come from within.
Since all development activities around the world are designed to meet human needs, it is everyone’s responsibility to adopt a sustainable lifestyle to ensure the success of the Global Sustainable Development Initiative. To achieve this, we must realize that human beings are an integral part of nature.
Although technological advances have kept modern lifestyles far from nature, a unique natural feature that humans possess is the use of emotions (still living within us) to rebuild the power of nature. Therefore, future conservation efforts should be aimed at strengthening our emotional connection with nature. To this end, the awareness of “ecology is a permanent economy” is more important than merely understanding the ecological complexity that exists in nature.
P. Ragavan is a scientist interested in taxonomy, ecology and mangrove and seagrass biogeochemistry. He is conserving and managing mangroves and carbon dynamics in India’s blue carbon habitat. The opinions expressed are personal
publishing – May 14, 2025 at 12:08 am IST
