Restorative justice and environmental restoration, twin pillars of a just global environmental policy: Hearing the voice of the victim.

Source: (2004) Journal of Societal and Social Policy. 3(2):33-48.

The concept of restorative justice is carried further in this article to include its vital application
in the field of environmental justice. The new method of environmental justice stands for a
mixed array of ecological, ethical and moral premises positing how humans could live in peace
with the rest of the natural world. The paper suggests that the way we treat the non-human world
is reflected in the way we treat the human world, and concludes that we ought to hear the voices
of nature first before devising environmental policies. Environmental policy needs to reflect the
needs of the environment first and cannot be based on the believe that human inventiveness can
fully restore degraded ecosystems. Arguments for reclamation founded on human benefits and
interests alone are not apt to provide adequate protection for the environment. Nature needs,
instead, to be perceived and understood as being intrinsically valuable by itself. (author’s abstract)