18th Jun 2024 Gemini 1.5 Pro
This podcast episode of "Earth Commons: Ecological Institutions" brings together Tony Lai, Austin Wade-Smith, and Jessie Kate Shingler to discuss the intersection of ecological institutions, decentralized protocols, and the future of law in the context of the Earth Commons gathering. Tony Lai sets the stage by highlighting the significance of the Earth Commons event and its focus on public goods, particularly in relation to Earth data and the redesign of governance systems for a more life-respecting future. He emphasizes the importance of bringing together diverse perspectives from law, technology, and ecology to address the pressing challenges facing our planet.
Bringing it here to the Bay Area was something that for me was special, I think, because many of us who've been a part of this are from here, or call this a home, and for for myself, having had the chance to sort of shape a research group at Stanford. Knowing this was at Berkeley, it was always interesting to sort of bridge that divide, right? It's, I think, part of our joy space is sort of these intersections.
Lai introduces Austin Wade-Smith, Executive Director of the Regen Foundation, who has written a seminal paper on ecological institutions. Wade-Smith's work explores how decentralized protocols can be used to create self-governing and convivial ecological systems. This concept is rooted in the belief that nature has intrinsic rights, a perspective that is gaining traction within the climate justice movement. He proposes leveraging institutional forms to shift societal paradigms toward recognizing the interconnectedness of humans and the environment.
Jessie Kate Shingler joins the conversation, bringing her expertise on exclosures, a concept that explores systems design principles for creating self-defending, autonomous spaces for ecological and cultural flourishing. Shingler emphasizes the importance of moving beyond viewing autonomy as antagonistic and instead recognizing it as a fundamental characteristic of resilient systems. She argues that by understanding the typologies of exclosures and their inherent stability mechanisms, we can design more harmonious interfaces between human systems and the natural world.
And what we don't do is to look at them as a kind of a class of system that could be studied in their own right in terms of their characteristics and their kind of typology. And what's interesting about that is that when we kind of center autonomy as a, let's say like as a kind of neutral or almost dispassionate feature of systems design, then rather than seeing autonomy as necessarily antagonistic or necessarily implying that a system is broken or that something that we have to suppress to have homogeneity and consistency, that all of a sudden autonomy becomes something that is the sort of like composable kind of unit that we can use in order to construct a larger scale stability.
To illustrate the practical applications of ecological institutions, Wade-Smith presents several case studies. One example involves using decentralized protocols to enable a body of water, such as the Great Salt Lake, to issue bounties for petitions to local governments when its water level falls below a critical threshold. This example demonstrates how ecological systems can be empowered to directly participate in political processes to protect their own well-being. Another case study focuses on securing the rights and cultural practices associated with sacred sites by enabling these sites to legally own the fees or taxes collected from tourism.
The conversation then turns to the concept of legal personhood for natural entities, drawing on examples from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Shingler highlights how legal personhood, as seen in the case of Mount Taranaki, represents a convergence of Western law and indigenous Tikanga reasoning. This approach recognizes the inherent rights of nature while acknowledging the importance of indigenous knowledge systems and practices in governing and relating to the natural world. The speakers emphasize the need to create legal frameworks that respect and empower indigenous communities to be stewards of their ancestral lands and waters.
In closing, the speakers invite listeners to move beyond theoretical discussions and engage in the practical work of building ecological institutions. They highlight the importance of prototyping, experimenting, and collaborating with diverse communities to develop real-world solutions. Wade-Smith encourages listeners to identify initiatives that align with the principles of ecological institutions and to explore how these concepts can be piloted and implemented in various contexts.
And so, yeah, What's been emerging is the idea that we could bring together lawyers who could kind of give eyes on some of these institutional innovations, as well as people who are kind of committed to trying out some of these new institutional ideas together into a kind of studio of some kind.
Shingler and Lai introduce several initiatives, including Mother Tree Labs and the Earth Law Center, which are working to create alternative pathways for studying and practicing law that are grounded in ecological principles. They emphasize the need for new forms of property ownership and governance that recognize the interconnectedness of human and ecological systems. The speakers express optimism that by embracing these innovative approaches, we can create a more just and sustainable future for all beings.
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