#please leave this '

I can't clearly remember the first time I have heard about permaculture, agroforestry, or biodynamic agriculture. It's the kind of subject that somehow, comes out in the middle of a conversation, a radio emission, an article… There is something in the air. Many people feel the need to reconnect with nature, as if the invisible link between us (modern occidental homo sapiens sapiens) and our environment (land, plants, animals) is unravelled and requires some urgent repairs. This may be true. It could be one of the reasons why I became interested in these subjects too. It can even be one of the reasons why I felt the need to learn about the functioning of nature and became a biologist. Nevertheless, this sort of “call of Nature” also became a wonderful marketing argument and now it is everywhere around us: natural food, natural cloth, natural medicine… I believe it is important to be able to make the difference between the real and the fake. Sometimes, keeping a clear mind is truly difficult because we tend to imagine that everything coming from nature is good for us. But natural is not a synonymous of healthful! The most dangerous poisons come from natural products. Wild animals are not supposed to be nice with human beings. A natural medicine can be harmful if taken in an unsuitable way.

During Heterotopia in Portugal, we had plenty of fascinating facilitators, interesting workshops and discussions. But sometimes, explanations had the tendency to mix belief and evidence. Some facts were over-analysed and lead to subjective interpretations. As I am a scientist, my brain is trained to doubt and it's really hard to convince me because I need proofs, demonstrations, debates before believing what you are saying. My experience in Portugal showed me that having a critical mind and keeping an objective point of view are fundamental. Here I would like to share some reflections about these subjects and highlight their importance with examples. So, up for some stories?

2 #nature is here to cure you #nature is intelligent #spirituality and scientific explanations #science and myth

1 #during a session, show both sides of the coin: fire and human beings

I truly enjoy being outside, into nature, walk freely and look what surrounds me. Forests are especially amazing: there is always a bird, a tree, a flower to pay attention to and appreciate its inherent beauty. On the third day of Heterotopia, we had a workshop about forestry management and fire prevention. The goal was to clear the forest around us in order to avoid fire to destroy the camp we were building. This region is very dry and fire are common there. Because of the imbalance of the ecosystem and in particular the lack of big wild animals, trees are too numerous and too high. When a fire starts, it runs fast and cause severe damages which can be fatal. We had to replace these missing animals in order to help restoring the ecosystem. These explanation totally convinced all of us that we were doing the right think, even if it implied cutting trees (which is sort of paradoxical). I had lots of fun chopping wood with an axe, as if I was belonging to some kind of ancient tribe taking care of mother nature! We were doing a pleasant and useful work, trying to prevent fire to spread. Nevertheless, while I was sawing some branches, i remembered a course I had a few years ago about fire ecology. In Mediterranean ecosystem, the climate is arid and fires are part of the life cycle. Many species are adapted to fire. Some trees only have branches on the upper part of the trunk so they don't burn completely, others have a thick bark which allow them to survive to fire, and even some seeds are able to sprout only after being subject to high temperature reached during a wildfire. This course changed my “human centred” vision of fire as a dangerous devastating force, to a more opened point of view of fire as part of life and renewing.

some kind of as if i was a especially if we are I enjoyed the most during this unforgettable Heterotopia experience in Portugal was

#expression: anthropocentrism, take advantage of nature

# theoretical context

# conclusion: show both sides of the coin, objectivity, expression, rigour

~DISCUSSION~~