Ecological Literacy - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 169

sustainable economies and societies at large - then we will need to develop
new forms of social organization and ecological literacy. Our knowledges
of nature and land usually accrue slowly over time. Yet, the immediacy of
the challenge means that we must move quickly in order to develop novel
and robust systems of social learning. These seek to build up relations of
trust, reciprocal mechanisms, common norms and rules, and new forms
of connectedness, thus helping in the development and spread of a greater
literacy about the land and nature. Great progress on developing new
commons is now being made through the actions of hundreds of thousands
of groups engaged in collective watershed, water, microfinance, forest and
pest management. These collective systems can also promote significant
personal changes. Ultimately, the barriers are inside each of us, and large-
scale transformations of land and community can only occur if we cross
these frontiers, too.