During the all the previous Ages, exploitation of nature was a central economic activity. This often meant killing ‘pests’ – when it was not to exploit wildlife directly (whales, fur animals…). Today, forests and wildlife come back with a vengeance!
This excellent paper of the Wall Street Journal “America Gone Wild” describes the situation in the US: wildlife booms and starts to impact severely the modern american way of life. In Europe, a generation of countryside hobby game hunters who were traditionally managing wildlife is also disappearing, opening the way to a more professional management of game and wildlife.
It is great to see that nature comes back and that the environment does improve in developed countries. Forests grow. Wildlife develops. Still as we are moving into the Collaborative Age we need to reinvent wildlife management to satisfy our wish of a dynamic wildlife and still manage it so that it stays within reasonable bounds that we can accommodate. This will need more professional, subsidized game management, probably involving professional hunters. A new institution, probably.
There will be some soul searching on that subject in the next years and decades; and there will certainly be some instances of excessive wildlife presence that will need to be curbed.
More importantly we need to invent a new relationship with nature. Let not the fear of the wolf so ingrained in our European minds will come back to haunt us! Not any more a confrontational or exploiting relationship, but a synergistic relationship that will make us thrive on Earth. Are you ready to contribute?
