Common Ground: The Sharing of Land and Landscapes for Sustainability

by Mark Everard

Common Ground explores the shifting relationship between human society and the landscapes that bear it. Examining the changing understandings of the natural world and its management and exploitation, environmental activist Mark Everard presents solutions in the nature of ecosystem services.

Notwithstanding our total dependence on the Earth's natural resources, the relationship between humanity and the land has shifted significantly and frequently throughout our tenure, brief as it is relative to the evolution of planetary life. Appropriating increasing proportions of nature's resources to meet our shifting and growing demands, we have been degrading the quality and extent of ecosystems, nearly destroying their capacities to meet the needs of a burgeoning population.

The book offers a fresh and vital whole-system approach to the key under-pinning the issue of sustainability. Everard looks ahead to what is required to live sustainably, respecting the central role of landscapes in supporting human wellbeing into the long-term future.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Davide Rizzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everard is clearly an eco-optimist. His book is full of examples examples for re-thinking the bases of economy: a sound development must pursue not only the preservation of land and landscape, but rather their improvement. Amazing opportunities are listed for shifting from "we have to repair some inevitable environmental damages" to "fostering resource good management we obtain also good development". Sometimes a little naive, "Our common ground" has two majors flaws. First, it strangely forgets the "European Landscape Convention" although this is one of the most advanced treaty for land and landscape preservation across different policy sectors. Second, Everad ambiguously refers throughout the whole book to "land and landscape", never explaining the difference nor defining them. Altogether, the book is a good starting point to learn more about the land and landscape management and why monetize them with an approach of "payment for ecosystem services" (PES).