‘Making hay’: A conditional defence on ecocentric grounds of various co-created habitats

Joe Gray

The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 Suppl A 2019: 43–54

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First published: 12 November 2019 | PERMANENT URL | DOWNLOAD CITATION IN RIS FORMAT

Abstract

This article begins with an argument and delimiting conditions for the place of certain traditional anthropogenic, or 'co-created', habitats within ecocentrically minded conservation. Next, four examples of such co-created habitats are explored: lowland meadows, heathland, coppiced woodland and old orchards. The examples are drawn from the lowlands of Great Britain but their discussion has geographically broader implications. Such habitats, it is argued, have a place within an ecosphere that elsewhere evidences a major stepping back of humans; within this wider context, they can act as 'reservoirs' from which biodiversity can radiate again once the time comes. In other words, they represent a means of widening the bottleneck through which life is passing. They also offer not only a liberation from the destructive nature of approaches to land management forged by industrialism but also a roadmap for a revival of forgotten skills in a future culture of simplicity and creativity.

Keywords

Biodiversity, Co-created habitats, Conservation