Rachel's Precaution Reporter #46  [Printer-friendly version]
July 12, 2006

PRECAUTION AND THE SEVENTH GENERATION PRINCIPLE

[Rachel's introduction: In the U.S., the precautionary principle no
longer stands alone. It is now part of a cluster of ideas that,
together, form a new philosophy for protecting the natural
environment and human communities. Some of the other ideas include
the public trust doctrine, protecting the commons, and most
recently the principle of Seventh Generation Guardianship.]

By Peter Montague

In the U.S., the precautionary principle no longer stands alone. It is
now part of a cluster of ideas that, together, form a new (and
evolving) philosophy for protecting the natural environment and human
communities. The other ideas, at this point, are the public trust
doctrine, protecting the commons, and most recently the principle
of Seventh Generation Guardianship. (In my own mind, I add
"localizing the economy" and "zero waste" to this cluster of
precautionary ideas.)

The most recent -- and most ancient -- addition to this cluster of
"precautiuonary" ideas is the Seventh Generation Principle of the
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people.

The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship was released
July 6, 2006, during the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference,
convened by the Indigenous Environmental Network in Bemidji,
Minnesota.

The Bemidji Statement combines the indigenous wisdom of the
Haudenosaunee -- "The first mandate.... is to ensure that our
decision- making is guided by consideration of the welfare and well
being of the seventh generation to come." -- with the precautionary
principle.

The Statement calls for new guardians and new guardian institutions to
protect the future of us all. The Statement evolved from a
conversation that began in Alaska in December 2005 between Alaska
Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), the Indigenous Environmental
Network (IEN), and the Science and Environmental Health Network
(SEHN).

You can get the full Bemidji statement here in a format suitable for
printing (just cut and paste it into your word processor). And you can
read how guardianship is starting to find its way into some of our
institutions in places like New Jersey and Wisconsin. We can all be
guardians.