ABSTRACT
Ecocentrism is not unique to the contemporary environmental movement; ethical systems that see humanity as enmeshed within the multilayered realms of the natural world are contained within many indigenous worldviews (Selin 2003). Within industrialized nations, ecocentrism developed in response to liberal environmentalism and modern conservation management techniques. The approach has drawn particular philosophical inspiration from Aldo Leopold’s holistic “land ethic,” which argues that we must reposition humans’ connection with their biotic world through a new ethic that “changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it” (Leopold 1968 [1949]: 204). In this way, according to Leopold, we must learn to “think like a mountain” in our understanding of the interrelationships between species and their environments (Leopold 1968 [1949]: 129-133).
