Leave No Trace (LNT) is globally the most widely accepted minimum impact program and has been linked to behavior change and the maintenance of a range of ecological measures. Critiques of LNT have emerged, including that LNT ignores wider impacts that contribute to climate change and diverse world views. Many outdoor education students carefully follow LNT practices. When students encounter these critiques, they often conclude either that LNT is effective and the detractors are misplaced or that LNT should be abandoned, thereby avoiding deep engagement. Education must prepare students for the contested project of creating a sustainable future. We argue that LNT shows considerable promise as a context for learning through dialectical approaches where students must engage with divergent articles and examples. LNT can be used to help students understand that taking informed action is important. LNT can also be used to show that there are no innocent actions.

At the heart of sustainability is the relationship between humans and the planet. The binary of anthropocentric or ecocentric worldviews appears to be powerful in defining this relationship. Sustainability requires nuanced approaches which go beyond simple binaries, and therefore a dialectic approach which works to synthesise the binaries may be helpful. This paper draws on Māori cultural understandings of fire to trouble the ecocentric versus anthropocentric binary. Māori oral traditions of fire identify the connections between people and the planet and see people as part of fire and fire as part of people. By exploring Māori oral traditions, it is possible to see fire as more than purely an element that contributes to environmental problems and reveals the pedagogical potential of campfires to reignite the relationship between humans and the planet.

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