Ecological restoration

[15][16][17][18] On a global level, the concept of nature-positive has emerged as a societal goal to achieve full nature recovery by 2050, including through restoration of degraded ecosystems to reverse biodiversity loss.

"[34] Some restorationists urge active restoration (e.g. killing invasive animals) and others believe that protected areas should have the bare minimum of human interference, such as rewilding.

[40] Another driver of restoration projects in the United States is the legal framework of the Clean Water Act, which often requires mitigation for damage inflicted on aquatic systems by development or other activities.

However, in a system that has experienced a more severe disturbance (such as in urban ecosystems), restoration may require intensive efforts to recreate environmental conditions that favor natural successional processes.

[45] Habitat fragmentation describes spatial discontinuities in a biological system, where ecosystems are broken up into smaller parts through land-use changes (e.g. agriculture) and natural disturbance.

[49] Ecosystem function describes the most basic and essential foundational processes of any natural systems, including nutrient cycles and energy fluxes.

The establishment of a single species, best adapted to the physical and biological conditions can play an inordinately important role in determining the community structure.

While new experiments can be designed, one way forward is to use data from existing restoration studies to relate plant species performance to their ecological trait.

Looking over 40 years of wetland restoration data, Klötzli and Gootjans (2001) argue that unexpected and undesired vegetation assemblies "may indicate that environmental conditions are not suitable for target communities".

[73] Succession may move in unpredicted directions, but constricting environmental conditions within a narrow range may rein in the possible successional trajectories and increase the likelihood of the desired outcome.

[81] Similarly, a suite of new methods are surveying gene-environment interactions in order to identify the optimum source populations based on genetic adaptation to environmental conditions.

[85] Local communities sometimes object to restorations that include the introduction of large predators or plants that require disturbance regimes such as regular fires, citing threat to human habitation in the area.

[88][89][90][91] In a 2009 survey of practitioners and scientists, the "science-practice gap" was listed as the second most commonly cited reason limiting the growth of both science and practice of restoration.

After release of the first edition, SER held workshops and listening sessions, sought feedback from key international partners and stakeholders, opened a survey to members, affiliates and supporters, and considered and responded to published critiques.

[119][114] Civilian Conservation Corps workers replanted nearby prairie species onto a former horse pasture, overseen by university faculty including Aldo Leopold, Theodore Sperry, Henry C. Greene, and John T.

[122] Anishinaabek/Neshnabék throughout the Great Lakes region are leading ecological restoration projects that, in the words of Kyle Whyte, "seek to learn from, adapt, and put into practice local human and nonhuman relationships and stories at the convergence of deep Anishinaabe history and the disruptiveness of industrial settler campaigns.

From this time, Australian botanists, plant ecologists and soil erosion researchers have increasingly developed interests in the recovery of ecological functioning on degraded sites.

The earliest known attempt by Australian settlers to restore a degraded natural ecosystem commenced in 1896, at Nairm (as it is known to people of the Kulin nation), or Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne.

[124] Local government and community groups replanted degraded areas of the foreshore reserves with the indigenous plant species, coastal teatree (Leptospermum laevigatum).

However, some local residents, including Australian journalist, nature writer and amateur ornithologist, Donald Macdonald, were distressed at the loss of valued biological qualities, and campaigned to fully restore the Teatree ecosystems and conserve them and their indigenous fauna.

From approximately 1930, Australian pastoralists implemented revegetation projects aiming to the substantial to full restoration of indigenous flora to degraded, wind eroded areas.

and mulga (Acacia aneura) vegetation communities was possible, if a stock exclosure and natural regeneration revegetation technique was applied to degraded paddocks.

For example, at Wirraminna station (or property, ranch), following fencing to exclude stock, severe soil-drifts were fully revegetated and stabilised through natural regeneration of the indigenous vegetation.

This project involved the natural regeneration of indigenous flora on a severely wind eroded site of hundreds of hectares, located in arid western New South Wales.

From approximately 1840 settlers forcibly occupied the coastal hinterlands, dispossessed First Nations communities, destroyed extensive areas of biologically diverse rainforest and converted the land to farms.

In the past, they managed their environment and changed the structure of the vegetation to not only meet their basic needs (food, water, shelter, medicines) but also to improve desired characteristics and even increasing the populations and biodiversity.

[134] The use of natural resources by indigenous people considers many cultural, social, and environmental aspects, since they have always had an intimate connection with the animals and plants around them over centuries since they obtained their livelihood from the environment around them.

[138] For example, the California Indians have a rigid and complex harvesting, management and production practice, largely typical horticultural techniques and concentrated forest burning.

The California Indians had a rich knowledge of ecology and natural techniques to understand burn patterns, plant material, cultivation, pruning, digging; what was edible vs. what was not.

[139] While the United States has counteracted the degradation, fragmentation and loss of habitat through land set aside from all human influence, indigenous practices could inform ecosystem restoration and wildlife management.