Feral Nature

Our dualistic conception of nature is neither universal nor universalizable. However, positing the exteriority of what is human and what is natural, this dualism has been declined in a certain number of oppositions: nature/culture; natural/artificial. One might a priori consider that the same is true of the opposition between the wild and the domestic. However, between the wild and the domestic, there is an in-between environment (what the Romans called the saltus), whether it be pastoral areas or forest stands that are no longer exploited, or even industrial and urban wastelands. This is what is known in France as “feral nature”, the result of multiple wilderings. The author argues for the free evolution of these environments as an alternative strategy for protecting nature.