The Bergplaas Community Trust is spearheading a groundbreaking, community-rooted initiative to recognise and uphold the Bergplaas Community as a living, interdependent “Other-than-human” entity, being a collective of beings endowed with intrinsic value, integrity and enforceable rights. Located in the Sneeuberg Mountains of the Great Karoo, the Bergplaas Nature Reserve encompasses over 5,000 hectares of ecologically significant land. Far beyond a conventional protected area, Bergplaas is a vibrant ecological community defined by the intricate relationships among land, water, air, plants, animals and people.
The Bergplaas Community Trust represents an evolution in both legal and ecological paradigms; moving from traditional management frameworks that treat nature as property or a resource, this initiative is founded on an eco-centric jurisprudence (Also known as Earth Jurisprudence) that recognises
- humans as participants within, not masters over, ecological systems;
- Bergplaas Nature Reserve as a self-regulating community of interdependent beings; and
- the intrinsic value and enforceable rights of non-human entities on Bergplaas.
The Trust is expressly structured to ensure that all decision-making is guided by an overriding duty of ecological care and responsibility. Trustees are mandated to consider the long-term and cumulative ecological impacts of their decisions; act proactively to prevent, mitigate and remediate environmental harm; and prioritise the integrity and functionality of the Bergplaas Community over short-term human interests.
This is intended to ensure that Bergplaas continues to foster learning and deep connection to Land, unburdened by anthropocentric paradigms.
You can learn more about Bergplaas on the website.
