Nature's Spirit

• At one point in my life I fell in love with nature, human nature as well as plants, flowers and animals alike and decided to dedicate my life and work to the natural diversity surrounding us. At about the same time I asked myself the meaning of social justice and a society without discrimination, where all members have the same opportunities, rights and responsibilities. In an attempt to find answers, I found that if people showed contempt towards nature around them, there could never be social justice. Social justice cannot be achieved without environmental justice. All people are equally responsible for caring for and protecting all natural resources like animals and plants while everyone should have equal access to the available natural resources for survival as well as for enjoyment and enrichment. Social justice for the poor can be achieved through environmental justice, because the poor heavily depend on their natural environment for survival. If society does not take care of this environment, it takes away the means of survival of many poor, thus increasing social injustice. If big market players keep destroying nature for pure economic benefit of the happy few, a growing number of poor people have to carry the burden in an increasing and thus unfair way, creating an even bigger divide between rich and poor. The first step towards environmental justice is awareness of the need to take care of our environment. Here we can learn a lot from indigenous people who carry knowledge gained over centuries on how to live in harmony with the surrounding nature, how to protect it, and how to nurture it. But protecting is not enough, to make sure future generations can also enjoy the beauty of untouched landscapes, we have to start nurturing the nature today. Herbal medicine and traditional handicrafts are like the left and right hands of minority women. To the outside world they are a strong visual testament of an age-old knowledge that counters the idea that minority women are uneducated and thus backward. Herbal medicine allows minority communities to survive in isolated areas while minority people wear their traditional clothes with pride and dignity. Minority people have great respect for their natural environment that provides them with the resources for medicine and clothing. Why can minority communities not be allowed to live in National Parks knowing they will not kill the mother that feeds and clothes them, and will nurse the forests. For minority communities the forests are like their ancestors, part of their history and the link between their past and future. Minority women picture the plants and animals that sustain them in the embroideries that adorn their clothes, seeing their natural surrounding with the hands that work the textiles. It is a way of saying thanks to Mother Nature for sustaining them throughout their lives. It shows how religion and traditional culture are intertwined with the land they inhabit.
  
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