Land - a compelling issue II

Why is land such a compelling issue in this country? The answer lies partly in the nature of land itself, in what land actually is.

At its simplest, land is ‘the part of the earth’s surface that is not covered by water.’ Like water, land is a basic part of the physical world we live in. And like water, it stirs up an array of issues to do with environmental management and access to natural resources. How can the land be used in ways that are sustainable for the environment? How, at the same time, can it be used in ways that are sustaining for its creatures - including people? In many parts of the world, the practical ways people answer such questions can mean the difference between starvation and sustainability, between poverty and plenty.

But land is not just a physical thing. It’s not just a basic natural resource like air or water is. Land is important to us because its connected to everything we do as communities, cultures and societies. We live on it, look at it, work in it, eat from it. We travel across it and settle down on it, creating boundaries and thoroughfares to distinguish ourselves from others and mark out our own identities. Whether it’s the white picket fence between the footpath and front yard, the invisible line between one postcode and the next, or the formal border between one nation and its neighbour, people divide up land in ways that mark some places as home, and others as foreign territory. We make the land into a collection of places, with names and meanings basically distinguished from one another by human activities. Land, in other words, is fundamentally about culture as well as nature.