Abstract

In the long term, the economy and the environment are the same. If something is not good for the environment, it is not good for the economy. That is the rule of nature. Wendell Berry, one of the best thinkers and writers of our time, makes this observation: “We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us, would be good for the world… We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world is good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate with its processes and to yield to its limits... it is only the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.” (1987). This contribution shares 20 years of non-profit conservation and environmental efforts of foundations and family farms in Chile and Argentina, where the focus has been to implement the "Next Economy", through four main areas of activity: Parklands and Biodiversity Conservation, Restoration and Reforestation, Farming within Wildlands, and Environmental Activism.