I thought of this when we were given the definitions of community in one of our first Sustainable and Community Relations classes. The common definitions of community were given first; a group of people living in a particular local area, sharing common ownership, common interests, common goals, or a residential district. But the last definition given was the one that got me thinking, it was; a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other. This may be the biological and ecological definition but as soon as I heard this one it seemed like the best, most sustainable and most community oriented definition. Humans are not the greatest at interacting and sharing the environment with other organisms, we tend to think of communities as being made up of only one species; humans. But we do rely on other organisms for a variety of things, such as food production and waste removal. This makes them a part of our community and us a part of theirs. We are bound to other species around us by the food web, if nothing else. Humans could learn a lot from communities of organisms as they use their natural strengths collectively to be sustainable and have mastered the art of building sustainable communities over millions of years.
Different organisms such as insects and bacteria have learned to work together so that both populations benefit. An example of a sustainable community is between aphids and ants. Aphids produce nectar that ants want, so the ants herd the aphids and protect them from predators in exchange for providing nectar. This is a sustainable community based on trading of goods and services. I think there are more than a few things that could be learned. One thing that humans share with every organism on earth is the need to care for and protect the earth as we all rely on it to survive.
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