What is economics for peace?

Peace is critical to protecting the biosphere. Participatory community research is critical to both.

Peace is an economic condition build on respect for others and good information. As things stand, it appears that financial leaders (not our democratically elected representatives_ make decisions based on poor quality information. Otherwise, one must attribute poor management to a lack of good faith. Whether one or the other, good information is necessary anyway in order to whittle away at jargon conveyed rather than wisdom and common sense. No amount of pretense or show can make up for an utter failure to govern to ensure peace and equity. Stealing and killing is bad. Stealing and killing is not peace. Perhaps it is time to imagine another way. There is no excuse. Respecting local voice comes first in all cases.

Community-based ecosystem stewardship (sustainable management of natural resources) draws upon local knowledge to be understood as direct first hand observation whether based on historic and contemporary lived experience. Stewardship culture means people who care about the natural world where they reside and are prepared to care for it.

Thinking in new ways about conservation means the analysis of political economics in actionable ways. With participatory information sets and good faith, we can ensure accountability in financial markets, strengthen good governance, advance democracy through participatory research, eliminate externalities, and better inform conservation science.

Markets, science and governance can work if the players act with transparency. If they do not, then people must be able to readily come together to point it out. Covert or anonymous control of financial and producer markets leads to the poor management results we all endure.

Better management is possible with accountability and common ground. Support our efforts to build common ground and restore civility to public discourse. The public imagination still does not understand what it takes to shift out of public relations type community engagement to activated listening to substantive input by local people. That is the work of the Institute.

We lead the way in directly engaging the public to ensure community well-being and ecosystem stewardship inform baseline indicators and social/ecological impact assessment. This guidance already exists in the National Environmental Protection Act. And if the courts change the laws, no matter. People can still begin to make sense of what matters most in concrete ways to better inform and evaluate leadership. In our work at the Institute, we seek to help people understand each other better in their place-based communities.

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