You can't help live in a place like Sheffield and not be aware of the natural environment. Sheffield prides itself on being Britain's greenest city, which has more to do with the number of trees and parks than anything else, but it's a start.

It has large swathes of ancient woodland, the Peak District on its doorstep, numerous parks, rolling hills, moorland and rivers. It also has the scars of heavy industry and the coal and steel trades, which in some areas have devastated the city's natural assets.

I've been editing a series of case studies for Natural Economy Northwest recently: it's an organisation that seeks to show how a flourishing economy and a thriving natural environment are inextricably bound together.

But the justification for protecting biodiversity and landscape isn't just an economic one. E F Schumacher, in his look at 'Buddhist economics', explains how a serious look at culture and values should lead to a careful and respectful approach to our natural resources. For a Buddhist, he argues, 'non-renewable goods must be used only if they are indispensable, and then only with the greatest care and the most meticulous concern for conservation'.

The same holds good for other faiths. For Christians, the Genesis story signals that the environment has intrinsic value because it reflects its creator, and that the prime duty of humankind is to act as its steward. An approach to economics based on Christian values places the common good above private wealth, and opposes injustice and exploitation.

Even for a devout atheist, there are good utilitarian reasons for treating the environment as a resource to be protected rather than exploited. It would be the height of arrogance to assume that a species that has emerged from a symbiotic relationship with the world it inhabits could suddenly shrug off that interdependence without risking its own survival.

Whatever your culture, faith or philosophy, it's hard to find any justification for treating our environment as disposable. Yet we still persist with actions that do just that, usually on the basis of economic arguments.

The pictures on this page are just a few of the reasons why I love Sheffield's natural environment. There are a few more here on Flickr, and many other examples from photographers who are far more accomplished.

I'd like this environment, and more, to be there for generations to come. But that won't happen if we don't work for it.


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