An abundance mindset is a key tool for the regenerative engineer. It gives three things.
The first is the ability to see the richness of the situations we are in. The wealth that we have which may go unnoticed. The unused materials that could be worked with. The richness of the harvest.
The second is the possibility of seeing the potential of a place. What could this place be. What could happen here if we unlock the latent capacity of community and ecosystem to make something better.
And the third is the ability to see the missing richness of a place. Where a system may be in a desertified state, what it could like where it returned to its previous flourishing state.
It is this third kind of abundance that I see in the project to return 9000 acres of the Fens in East Anglia to nature. Where this was once a habitat deep in peat and rich in diverse species, draining of the land and intensive farming have left the fens in a decertified state in which 2cm of peat is eroded ever year. Near my cousin’s house the land is four metres lower than it was before draining started in the Victorian period. Soon there will be none left.
But purchase of large swathes of land by the Wildlife Trusts is enabling the return of wetter forms of farming in this land. This alternative approach aims to restore the peatland habitat, increase biodiversity and create a shift to alternative crops that can thrive in these wetter environments.
This abundant vision creates the potential for humans and the rest of the living world to thrive together.