Aria spent the late summer developing what she called the Comprehensive Prevention Initiative. It was ambitious to the point of audacity, but the Assembly had given her mandate and resources. She intended to use both.
The initiative had three interconnected components: economic opportunity programs for territories with high extraction rates, education about the long term harms of extraction, and support systems for people in desperate circumstances who might otherwise turn to extraction as a survival strategy.
"You are trying to solve poverty," Marcus said skeptically when Aria presented the plan to the Moonvalley council. "That is beyond the scope of restoration programs."
"I am trying to eliminate the conditions that make extraction attractive," Aria corrected. "Most copycat extractors are not evil people. They are desperate people making terrible choices because they see no other options. If we provide other options, extraction becomes less prevalent."
