José Sarukhán
Integrating human well-being into biodiversity (NATURE) is what we in Mexico have called the “horizontalization” of environmental issues in the country’s public policies. This is not just wishful thinking on the part of those of us who have worked on the issue of the conservation and sustainable management of nature, on which we depend totally, in a very real, concrete sense. First, because we are an animal species that developed as a result of evolution. And second, because we are made of Nature: every day, we ingest it in the form of food from biological diversity, especially that which our ancestors “invented” from numerous wild species: plants and animals. These species are everyone’s daily bread. The phrase “we are what we eat” has never been truer; what we eat builds us and characterizes our culture. Make no mistake: Nature does not need us; it is we who need Nature.
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The content of this webpage was taken from Biodiversitas no. 129, CONABIO’s newsletter. Its content may be reproduced provided the source and its author are cited.
