In conversation with the Institute Diana Soldo: Sometimes the best way to protect nature is to leave it alone

An ecologist offers her perspective that every individual needs to gain a greater understanding of ecosystems to protect them, and that the best way to do so often entails doing nothing.

14 May 2024 5 min read

Richard Morrow

Diana Soldo has spent most of her career in sustainability, in various guises. After studying biology with a focus on ecology at ETH Zurich, she spent several years in environmental sustainability research, latterly focusing on climate change, before helping non-governmental organizations with water management in Africa for two years.

She eventually returned to Switzerland, where she purchased a tract of forest close to Zurich. In the eight years since Diana has begun offering forest excursions, giving groups a chance to directly witness the fascinating forest ecosystem and gain a greater appreciation for and connection to nature.

Photo of Diana Soldo — Source: Patrick Schmed

What does sustainability mean to you and why is it important, particularly with regards to protecting forests?

For me as an ecologist, sustainability means protecting our ecosystems and habitats.

Forests are some of the most important ecosystems on earth; it’s crucial to protect not just the trees but the complex system around them, which includes thousands of species.

All these species interact and depend on each other. Whether worms or wolves, grasses or trees, fungi or mosses, all have their role to play in an ecosystem. If only some of them disappear, the balance of the entire systems is in jeopardy. When you come to know, how plants interact, communicate, and share resources using a fungal network nicknamed the “Wood Wide Web”, you’re amazed. With my excursions in the forests, I give the people the opportunity to come to understand, experience, and appreciate ecosystems and their vital place in our world. This is important because you protect what you appreciate.

Are company and community attitudes to helping protect forests and ecosystems evolving? If so, how?

Discussions about protecting forests and ecosystems have increased, but implementing plans is harder. It’s important to remember that protecting forests is about more than just protecting trees; just planting a new set of trees doesn’t necessarily create a functioning ecosystem. In fact, if not done the right way, you can wind up destroying the very ecosystem you are seeking to preserve.

One highlight for me was when over 190 countries signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. It is an important global agreement to restore and conserve at least 30% of land, water, and sea by 2030 to reduce biodiversity loss—it’s a great achievement if all companies and communities participate in that goal.

What sustainability-linked projects or initiatives are you currently most focused on?

I think every country needs to start with ecological preservation at home. Especially industrialized countries should not tell their developing neighbors to stop cutting down their virgin forests if they don’t do a good job themselves. For example, Europe used to be mostly covered by virgin forest, nearly all of which is now cut down. Now we need to restore and protect what we have left.

The easiest step to protect our ecosystems is to build reserves, without touching them.

Our society consumes a lot of resources, and we cannot protect everything, but we also need to let part of the system be spared from these needs.

It’s important to consider that nature doesn’t always have to be useful for us. We should recognize that it is a habitat for many species, of which we are just one.

When it comes to forest management, we often think of the need to cut or plant trees or save species. But it’s often better to just let things be, nature has regulated itself for millions of years.

What aspects of biodiversity or sustainability are most under-discussed?

A lot of individuals and organizations don’t understand what is meant by biodiversity. It’s not just about protecting a few species that we like, but a complex web of systems that are interconnected. Sometimes when we seek to protect one species, we risk unbalancing their habitat. We need to protect ecosystems rather than single species.

What gives you most hope that we can protect our planet’s biodiversity?

Unfortunately, what I have experienced so far has taken away from my hope. Systems are elusive, we are not able to totally control them by management or with a few techniques.Climate change is so complex; we don’t know exactly what and where tipping points may occur or how the system will manage it if they occur.

For example, climate change is so complex; we don’t know exactly what and where tipping points may occur or how the system will manage it if they occur.

My main hope lies in life and nature. The universe has shaped life since billions of years without human interference and will continue to do so. I’m outside very often, so I get in touch with all the life that manifests in trees, rivers, forests and much more. Experiencing that miracle of life every day gives me hope.

How have you changed your personal life to be more sustainable?

Being in the forest has changed my life, it’s great to spent time in nature. I am more involved in sustainable projects, consume more consciously and just appreciate the moment. I love sitting in the forest under a 200-year-old tree, feeling the moss under my fingers, breathing the smell of the earth, and listening to the wind. It calms the mind, relaxes the body, strengthens the immune system, and helps to find orientation, to name just a few positive effects which have been scientifically proven—it is also a reason, why doctors in Japan prescribe stays in the forest.

It’s so peaceful to have a quiet environment such as a forest. It is good to be surrounded by nature and have periods of silence in which we do nothing. Those quiet periods allow us to reflect, which helps us reach better solutions and to reconnect with nature.

This is essential—when we feel we are part of and not separated from nature, we will stop using and destroying it, and start protecting it.

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