Ecosystems republics

Despite global efforts towards sustainability and conservation, as per the latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Report, biodiversity depletion has only hastened since the turn of the century and all species are facing an existential threat. Unremitting exploitation of nature by humans is the primary reason for this ongoing environmental catastrophe. Capitalist extractivism, supported by centralized apparatus of the state, has spectacularly failed in ensuring environmental sustainability. I suggest ecosystems republics as an alternate form of political and economic organization to address this challenge. There is an urgent need to reimagine and therefore reorganize nation-states into a series of ecosystem republics with the objective of ensuring their integrity and environmental sustainability. Drawing on Gandhian ideas of swaraj and ahimsa, I explore and elucidate on a decentralized governance model based on three fundamental principles—demarcating and safeguarding ecosystem integrity; ensuring that all interests critical of ecosystems integrity are voiced and secured through their operation as republics; and finally recognizing that ecosystems are sui generis entities necessarily requiring the recognition of subsidiarity.