In TOES Town everybody views natural resources as part of the Town's heritage, and at the very least believe they should be stewarded to protect the productivity of ecosystems for maximum sustainable yield. For non-renewables, this means extraction is not allowed to adversely affect adjascent ecosystems, to the extent it can be avoided. Everybody agrees that whatever can be done to protect the natural heritage should be, even if it means extraction would be uneconomical. Folks in TOES Town view their Earth as a trust to be maintained and made more bountiful through time. Some folks feel even more strongly about their ties to the Earth, and argue that the term natural resources suggests an exploitive relationship to other life, with which they feel a spiritual intimacy. They prefer to discuss the Town's relationship to the river, the fish, the forest and trees, the hills and the Earth buried beneath. When they speak of maximum sustainable yield, they explain that to harvest the bounty of the Earth for human consumption obliges humans to do so with reverence and ingenuity to preserve and conserve the flow of energy and materials in ecosystems. It is a matter of honor and integrity that humankind use its intellegence for the benefit of life in ecosystems and harmonize its activity with the natural flows of Earth.
SCN
Protecting Natural Resources
Preservation of the natural environment and associated natural
resources is essential for maintaining community sustainability. This
section presents a variety of approaches and techniques that have
been used successfully in different communities to protect and
restore their natural resources as a key contribution toward making
their communities more sustainable.
Sustainable
Forestry
Through careful planning, sustainable forest practices, and a respect
for the land, the Menominee Forest remains a central part of
Menominee life and economy. Visitors to the Reservation will
appreciate the wisdom of the Menominee people in cherishing their
forest. Over the last 140 years the Menominee have removed two
billion board feet of lumber. Even so, the volume of sawtimber now is
greater than in 1854 when the Wolf River Treaty created the present
Menominee Reservation.
.epat
EPAT/MUCIA has research, training, and communication components that
offer
the latest information about: * Energy, Industry & the Urban
Environment * Forestry & Watershed Management * Macroeconomic
Policy * Population & the Environment * Institutions & Policy
Implementation * Environmental Policy Training * Environmental Policy
Communications.
Global Rivers
GREEN is an innovative, action-oriented approach to education, based
on an interdisciplinary watershed education model. GREEN's mission is
to improve education through a global network that promotes watershed
sustainability. It is a resource to schools and communities that wish
to study their watershed and work to improve their quality of life.
Earth Island
Earth Island Institute (EII) was founded in 1982 to foster the work
of creative individuals by providing organizational support in
developing projects for the conservation, preservation, and
restoration of the global environment. EII provides results-oriented
individuals the freedom to develop program ideas, supported by
services to help them pursue those ideas, with a minimum of
bureaucracy. Projects include The Atmosphere Alliance, Baikal Watch,
Global Service Corps, International Marine Mammal Project, Mangrove
Action Project, Rethink Paper Campaign, Sacred Land Film Project, Sea
Turtle Restoration Project, Southern Rockies Restoration Project,
Stewards of the Earth, and Urban Habitat Program.
Conservation
International
Conservation International (CI) is a field-based, non-profit
organization that protects the Earth's biologically richest areas and
helps the people who live there improve their quality of life.
Through CI's environmentally sensitive and economically sound
approach, resource protection is good business for everyone.
About RRI
The Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) is a non-profit organization
founded in 1983 to support innovative environmental management in the
U.S. and worldwide. RRI's main role is to advocate the implementation
of Green Plans, which are long term, comprehensive environmental
strategies. Headquartered in San Francisco and Marin County,
California, RRI also maintains offices in Washington, DC, Europe, and
New Zealand.
Home Page of The Nature Conservancy
- Help Save Endangered Habitats!
With a mission to protect plants, animals, and ecological communities
that represent the diversity of life on Earth, The Nature Conservancy
relies heavily on conservation science to guide its work. The
Conservancy developed the natural heritage program concept in the
1970s as a means of providing detailed, objective information on
patterns and processes of biological and ecological diversity.
Scientific knowledge and applications lie at the very heart of the
Conservancy's strategies and actions. Our Conservation Science
programs encompass the biological, ecological, and technological
knowledge that we draw on to identify and protect at risk
biodiversity, as well as the management methods and practices we
employ to ensure its survival.