Thoughts

There may be quite many who feels odd about me talking about conservation of grasslands that can exist only under human management.  When I say that these grasslands will turn into forests once out of human hands, it may sound like it is returning to natural state.  Why not let it return to nature?

Often the term "nature" means something opposite of "artificial."  It is quite common for people to think that "nature" is something that humans have not touched, and therefore conservation of "nature" means putting stop in human activities.  But in reality, humans have existed for thousands of years in most areas of the earth, and have influenced the surrounding environment in one way or the other.  Humans were part of the nature, and if we define "nature" as something that humans have not touched on then I am not really overstating to say that there are no such thing as "nature" on earth.  For better or worse, "hands off" policy toward the nature is itself one way for us to impact the nature.

In a way, it is more of a human arrogance to think that "nature" exists outside of "human activities," because that suggest that we humans exist independent of "nature."  Of course, "hands off" is one possible management policy toward nature, but it is still a form of human "management." One way or the other, we will make influence on the nature and we have to manage the nature.  So what kind of nature should we aim for?  What kind of management should we practice?  We all have to think about these questions.  I cannot say that after thinking about these questions we would arrive at conservation of grasslands.  But I do think that that is an option.