Ecotopia Emerging: sustainable forests and healthy livelihoods go hand-in-hand

By Wendee NicoleonAug. 02, 2014in Perspectives
A woman collects leaf litter in sacks from the forest. IFRI

“To all brothers and sisters who hold the dream in their hearts of a future world in which humans and all other beings live in harmony and mutual support – a world of sustainability, stability, and confidence,” began Ernest Callenbach in an essay found on his computer shortly after he died in 2012. “In the next decades, we shall see whether we indeed possess the intelligence, the strength, and the mutual courage to break through to another positive era.”

Political scientist Arun Agrawal’s research sheds light on the connection between forest health and people’s livelihoods

Callenbach’s 1975 utopian novel Ecotopia became wildly popular among environmental-leaning folks, hippies, and progressive thinkers of the day. Set in 1999, the novel took place twenty years after Oregon, Washington and northern California seceded from the union to form an imperfect, in-process sustainable nation. Journalist William Weston becomes the first American journalist allowed in Ecotopia, where he documents what he learns in newspaper columns and records personal insights in private journals.

Read more at Mongabay.

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