Each policy of Wild at Heart is based on two nonnegotiable principles: 1) humans are but one species in a community of vast numbers and diversity. While we are different, as is every element of the universe, we as humans have no special rights over any other member of the community; 2) nature is not only the source of sustenance to all of us, it is also the storehouse of 4.8 billion years of knowledge, and is willing to teach us everything we need, if we are but willing to learn.
These principles are not difficult to grasp intellectually or emotionally. They are starting points for resistance and creation - resistance to the systematic destruction of nature, and creation of alternatives. Wild at Heart offers these to activists in Taiwan who wonder where to begin. And all this is just a beginning, for it will be for every person to find his or her own way, and from that way we may hope to build something that contributes to stopping the insanity of the unconscious.
From these principles comes our commitment to "humbly learn from nature". In practice, we will check our policies and actions against the "nine principles of nature" as outlined in the text Biomimicry 1:
Nature runs on sunlight
Nature uses only the energy it needs
Nature fits form to function
Nature recycles everything
Nature rewards cooperation
Nature banks on diversity
Nature demands local expertise
Nature curbs excesses from within
Nature taps the power of limits
From these principles comes another set of guidelines that sets the parameters and direction of our activities as a "business". These four guidelines are borrowed from Natural Capitalism2:
Radical Resource Productivity
Biomimicry
Service and Flow Economy
Investing in Natural Capitalism
1. Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine M. Benyus, William Morrow 1997, p 7. This title is also available in Chinese (人類的出路)
2. Natural Capitalism, Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, Little Brown and Company, 1999, pp 10-21. Available in Chinese in Taiwan through 天下.