Bateson is, in my opinion, the single most important writer on the subject of ecology and sustainability, though very few people have read him... in part because he's quite a 'difficult' writer, but also because he tackles the subject from so many unexpected angles that it's often hard to know exactly what he's writing about.
His theory of "mind" for example (which is at the heart of the thesis I'm soon to submit) is radically different to almost any that came before it. One person has suggested that Bateson's "ecology of mind" may well be the single most subversive idea in the last 100 years.
Perhaps the most important thing to take from that theory is the notion that it is literally impossible to draw a line between "individual" and "species", between "individual" and "environment" or between "species" and "environment. And while such distinctions are useful for many many reasons, they are ultimately an illusion.
So when I talk of co-operative ecosystems, I'm not restricting myself to talk of "social co-operation". In fact, a co-operative ecosystem may well contains a number of competitive aspects. My point is simply that to speak of evolution as a species Vs species process which will throw up a nasty bastard as a winner (or even a compassionate co-operator as a winner)... or to see it as an individual trait Vs individual trait process within a single species that will throw up "nastiness" (or co-operation) as the winner, is to see less than half the picture.