Yesterday I volunteered to help two students from the University of Mauritius, for their final year project at the Valley of Ferney. This is one of the most beautiful areas of the island, where a lot is being done to preserve and regenerate native flora and fauna populations. In 2004, the valley was threatened by a prospective highway construction, which raised outrage in the country – and the area was finally protected.
It is great to see people working on understanding how the ecosystem (albeit including many non-native, invasive species) functions, enabling informed decisions on restoration measures. The two projects lead by the students consisted in mapping an area of 10,000 square meters with the native trees: their diversity, size, and spatial distribution. Tedious work, yes!, but necessary if we want to learn anything! With four pairs of hands, we mapped 200 square meters in a day!
This day, the work and the conversations reminded me yet again of the wide range of specialists around us, and it’s made me think of our position at ELIA. Specialists in the fields of “environment” and those invested in “social” work are all for a better world, at the end of the day: healthy ecosystems provide many services to society (filter water & air, maintain soil for growing food, maintain fish stocks, etc…), and so do healthy social systems (more trust, caring communities, equal opportunity, etc…).
All specialised knowledge is necessary and comes together in a beautifully interconnected system. Accumulation of knowledge is one thing, experience is another, and both come together in education, which is ideally life-long! The world changes every day, so every day we learn how to live in it! As far as the economy is concerned, it is a deeply imbedded part of our social system, and in principle, it allows us to thrive when the ecological and social systems are healthy.
It is in this perspective that we work at ELIA. We are stoked at the opportunity to meet and learn from very specialised people, and hope to be good stewards of their knowledge and experience in our actions!
Written by Xavier Koenig