The Role of a Keystone
What do hummingbirds, wolves, otters, and pitch pine trees have in common? Without them, our entire ecosystem would change – and not necessarily for the better. These beings are known as keystone species1, each playing a critical role to keep the ecosystem from falling apart. For example, otters do more than be adorable – which of course, they are. They help manage CO2 levels from doubling, making the atmosphere inhabitable and so keep kelp forests healthy and abundant.
The concept of keystone species is credited to zoologist Robert T. Paine who noted that the influence of these animals has tremendous repercussions on other species and life forces, as there are no other species to fill their niche. It is no surprise that today some of our keystone species are in danger of survival, and without them the entire ecosystem will have to radically change and adapt. Without bees, for example, our biodiversity would plummet with 250,000 plant species left vulnerable and 35% of the human diet lost. Like canaries in a coal mine, the health of our keystone species may portend what is to come.
The “Sustainability” of Hyperkeystones
This invites the question: is the human being a keystone species? And if so, are they generative or destructive? According to Boris Word and Robert Paine2, if keystone species are “organisms that have outsized ecological impacts relative to their biomass,” then humans may be considered “hyperkeystone” species. After all, human actions are amplified throughout complex chain reactions that affect many other keystone species. As such, humans have a choice of being a keystone species that help keep the ecosystem from falling apart – or do the opposite.
Forward-thinking individuals have long pressed that “sustainability” is unsustainable. As the Global Footprint Network3 estimates, humans use ecological resources at a rate as if we had 1.7 Earths. Unsurprisingly, some countries’ demand is at a rate even far greater than the supply. The purely economic supply-demand model has for too long placed humans on the “demand” side and the non-human side of nature on the “supply” side. Beyond the semantic, at some point – which we have arguably surpassed – it becomes impossible to sustain the rate of demand. Sustainability only extends the life shelf of a one-way exploitative relationship amplified by the ripple effect human-as-hyperkeystone.
The Compassion of Reciprocity
Non-human keystone species seem to understand that reciprocal relationships allow for restoration and regeneration. From a compassionate economic perspective, supply cannot be a one-way depletion to satisfy unsatisfiable demands. The give-and-take of mutual organisms and stakeholders within the ecosystem is necessary for the system to thrive. While trees show a preference for their “daughters,” trees feed other “unrelated” trees and as a final act of compassion when they die, provide food for other species, partnering with mycorrhizal fungi. After all, compassion is a concern for the well–being for others.
Such reciprocal relationships are not always rainbows and unicorns, however, for nature understands that compassion also acknowledges and encompasses the beauty and struggles of birth, death, and renewal. For example, wolves prey on elk. While the predator-prey relationship can be at times brutish and raw, it is one based on symbiotic balance. Without wolves, elk overpopulation erodes vegetative cover, which in turn reduces the population of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Wolves also reciprocate, stimulating growth of fauna and providing sustenance for scavengers.
Compassion in Action with the More-than-Human World
So, what might it be like if the hyperkeystone species of humans collectively rediscovered our reciprocal relationships with the non-human side of nature, or what the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy (ANFT) inspired by David Abram, calls the “More-Than-Human World” (MTHW)? What lessons from the many acts of compassion from the MTHW might humans learn? The MTHW has an abundance of acts of compassion as seen through three key attributes: centeredness, courage, and curiosity.
· Centeredness: the MTHW is ever fully present and focused moment-by-moment, and this intentionality allows for it to embrace the joy of co-existence. The American Beaver doesn’t spend its days ruminating or worrying; it lives in the moment, focused on its dam-building. That said, it isn’t ignoring the realities around it — it attunes to its environs that inform it how to prepare for and navigate upcoming changes.
· Courage: the MTHW abounds with reminders that each being has a purpose and role in the “interweb of being.” The vulture doesn’t pretend to be anything but its authentic self. They are carcass-eating, devoted parents who after incubating one egg at a time, feed their baby for over four months until the baby can leave the nest. Vultures know the critical role they play in the life-death cycle, taking and giving.
· Curiosity: the MTHW is continuously evolving and innovating to the changing conditions, never settling for the status quo. This constant adaptability allows for the symbiotic interplay among beings in an interdependent dance. The mycorrhizal network, for example, is comprised of the mycelium that connects individual plants together. The nimble curiosity of these beings allows them to act in their own best interests and to facilitate the survival and health of those around them in the entire ecosystem.
The choice of hyperkeystones
Humans have a choice: to be a compassionate or cancerous hyperkeystone species. If the choice is the former, how might we find centeredness, presence, and joy; the courage to live authentically and face the good, bad, and ugly; and the curiosity about our role in the intrapendence of all things? Inspired by the evidence-based practice shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of forest bathing, ANFT offers a promotes a relational approach to reestablishing a generative connection by encouraging humans to actively seek out opportunities to “meet” the “More-Than-Human World.” Whether that is going to a state park or walking outside to a nearby patch of grass, experiencing a shrub or an insect in their wholeness enables us to go beyond a 2D copies of images and cultivate compassion for ourselves, other humans, and the MTHW.
There isn’t a need to go on a solo backpacking trip for three months to get started. Experiencing reciprocity and compassion in action can happen right in front of us:
1. Get outside: whether you have access to mountains or a small patch of green, find ten minutes a day to get outside. As studies have shown4, even five hours a month in nature can have a tremendous ROI (Return On Investment). One study showed that being nature is correlated with acts of altruism and compassion5.
2. Pause and smell the flowers: it doesn’t have to be flowers, but rather than rushing past a tree or racing up trails, take a moment to pause and settle into the experience with all your senses. Doing so helps cultivate the feeling of awe, when we are in the presence so vast and beyond our myopic understanding of the world. As the American Psychological Association6 has found, there is a connection between being in nature, the emotion of “awe,” and prosocial behaviors.
3. Visit with “More-Than-Human” friends: pay attention to and allow yourself to be with the other non-human beings (not the bears; keep a safe distance from the bears). Give yourself permission to pick up a rock, run your fingers on the grass, or hold some dirt in your palm. Experiencing the tactical and sensory nature of other beings that co-exist with us helps us to cultivate the compassion for the inter-connectedness of all things.
A fuller sensory experience allows us to go beyond theoretically caring about our ecological health to actively engage in a generative, interdependent, compassionate relationship as a hyperkeystone species. Within this reciprocity lies empathy and compassion. After all, as Jacques Costeau said, “People protect what they love.”
*Photos © Belinda Chiu.
2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169534716300659
3 https://www.footprintnetwork.org/
4 https://thriveglobal.com/stories/reimagining-education-ten-hours-in-nature/
5 https://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/10/01/nature-and-compassion
6 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-21454-002