What is Cooperative Ecology?

Cooperative Ecology™(CoEco) is all about how to live in better friendship with each other and the natural world. Help and support flow both ways, even if some life forms seem not to be conscious of how their actions support others. And yet, organisms in all thriving ecosystems are doing just that. If that support did not happen in collaboration with each component, the entire ecosystem would have a difficult time surviving for long.

The term “Cooperative Ecology” was created by Dr. Lawrence Anthony to describe when all the parts of an ecosystem, including people, work well together and cooperate toward the mutual benefit of all. To the degree that any one life form, including an individual person, makes decisions or takes actions that are more destructive than constructive towards the people and natural world around him/her, that person or life form’s own potential to live a long and healthy life is endangered. That’s the core idea.

Increased awareness of the principles of Cooperative Ecology and how to apply them in life helps people better understand how their own survival depends on the health and prosperity of all life forms around them -- how a thriving natural world makes a good life more possible for each of us – and how to make more consistently constructive decisions across the various areas of one’s life.

“To CoEcologize (or to CoEco) something or someone” means to help bring that person or situation into a better state of cooperation with the world around them; to make them aware of the mutual interdependency of all life and the physical world, and, thereby, bring about cooperation and mutual supportive existence.

We are developing and implementing educational materials and campaigns for children, as well as for a variety of different industries and the general public. Our purpose is to help bring about a new era of constructive decision making.