The fear is related to the forest, not the plants. This feeling is very old, it goes back to Roman civilization. For the Romans, the forest was the place of the “stranger”: It was in the forest that the barbarians hid. Moreover, the French word “forêt” [forest] comes from the Latin foris, which means “outside”. In English, the word “foreign” refers to what you don’t know, that which is far away. It may be due to the ecological legacy of antiquity that the tree continues to be considered a material for trade, which is not very commendable. We have remained within this fear of the forest and the desire to sell wood.
Francis Halle, A Life drawing trees, Interview with Emmanuele Coccia # 6
Why do you fear the forest?
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- But who really owns land and nature? Humans have no more self-evident rights than grass, trees, and squirrels, not to speak of fungi and bacteria. Property, the conceit that state-backed human social relations give us absolute rights over things, does not go far in the realms of land and nature, wh …
What if we invent an ecosystemic economy
Do forests need to be cultivated? It used to be common sense that forests don’t survive on their own, that they need a ranger, someone to take care of the forest, and that the trade of wood is part of taking care of the forest. The fear of the forest somehow translated into a desire to exploit the forest in order to control it without considering its regeneration. Now that we are beginning to understand the limits of trading in trees—that this resource is not infinite—it becomes urgent to rethink our relationship with the forest. How can we imagine a sustainable relationship with the forest? And could this shift in perspective—this change in how we relate to the forest—encourage the development of production processes that respect and sustain ecological balance, fostering a relationship of mutual care and respect?
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