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The practice of ecological restoration is
a dynamic one and is therefore open to various interpretations and
definitions. In its most ideal sense, ecological restoration is
defined as the process of assisting the recovery and management of
ecological integrity.
Some further definitions of
Ecological Integrity
Ecological integrity includes a critical
range of variability in biodiversity, ecological processes and
structures, regional and historical context and sustainable
cultural practices (definition from Society for Ecological
Restoration). "A return to a former or historic
condition". (William Jordan III, 1995)
"The practice of re-establishing the
historic plant and animal communities of a given area or region and
the renewal of the ecosystem and cultural functions necessary to
maintain these communities now and into the future." (Dave
Egan, 1996)
The return of an ecosystem to a close
approximation of its condition prior to disturbance. (The U.S.
Natural Resource Council, 1992, Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems.)
Many people have pointed out that this ideal may be impossible to
attain because: 1) we know very little about historic
ecosystems, 2) some key species may be lost and 3) such efforts may
be prohibitively expensive. Many people, thus shy away from using
the term 'restoration' and settle on the more broadly applicable
and attainable term, 'rehabilitation'. This term--known to the
medical community--suggests a practice that aims to repair or
replace essential ecosystem structures and functions that have been
altered or eliminated by disturbance. (G.D. Cooke and W.R. Jordan
III, 1995).
The Society for Ecological Restoration has
opted for the this inclusive approach in their definition of
ecological restoration:
Ecological restoration is the process of
renewing and maintaining ecosystem health (SER Board of Directors,
1995)
Here are what various ecologists have said
about ecological restoration (All quotes are from Restoration
Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to Ecological Restoration.. 1987.
William R. Jordan III, Michael E. Gilpin, and John D. Aber,
editors. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.)
"Like watch repair, restoration is a
considerable intellectual challenge requiring that we understand
not only the nature of the ecosystem itself, but also the nature of
the damage and how to repair it. Hence my assertation...that land
restoration is an acid test of our ecological understanding".
Anthony D. Bradshaw, Dept. of Botany, University of Liverpool
Introduction
"We've heard that the goal of
restoration should be to recreate a natural community, or to
recreate a self-sustaining community, or perhaps to preserve a
community for posterity in essentially its natural state. This
goal--this formulation of the goal--isn't itself a self-evident
mandate, however. It's a choice based on values, and it is only one
of many possible choices."
"We know that different people with
different values would make different choices about the same site.
And even if we adopt the goal of a natural community, it is
important to recognize that this goal is extremely ambiguous and
needs to be defined very carefully in order to be useful."
Jared Diamond, University of California-Los Angeles
"Ecosystem restoration is an activity
at which everyone wins: when successful, we are rewarded by having
returned a fragment of the earth's surface to its former state;
when we fail, we learn an immense amount about how ecosystems work,
provided we are able to determine why the failure occurred."
John J. Ewel, Dept. of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville,
Florida
"Restoration ecology is just this
process of assembly, carried out specifically to test ideas about
how communities and ecosystems work." John L. Harper, Unit of
Plant Population Biology, University College of North Wales.
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