When the heavenly gaze criminalizes: satellite surveillance, land clearance regulation and the human-nature relationship

Abstract

'Whenever there are men competent for the task, let them be given forest to cut down in order to improve our possessions' (Charlemagne). Many changes wrought by humanity on the environment have involved not only a dramatic change in its physical appearance and composition, but also cultural and institutional changes, for example in the view of the value of property as expressed in the extract above. In countries such as Australia, higher prices and commodity values have usually been placed on privately owned production landscapes with only the extraordinarily exquisite, or discarded leftovers remaining in public ownership. In the latter, limits have been placed on human activities and, at the same time, the purpose for exclusion is expressed in terms of the benefits to humanity. The world's first reserve, Yellowstone National Park in the United States, was declared in 1872 with the objective of preservation 'for the benefit and the enjoyment of the people'.