Ecological Restoration in 2010: Insight from Four Continents

Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land . Apfelbaum, S. I., and A. Haney . 2010 . Island Press , Washington , D.C. 264 pp. $30 (paperback) . ISBN 978-1-57805-572-0 . The Restoration of Nature in Japan. A Challenge to Ecological Engineering . T. Hirose , editor . 2010 . Tokai University Press , Kanagawa , Japan . 206 pp . ISBN 978-4-486-03724-8 . Pacto Pela Restauraçao da Mata Atlântica. Referencial dos Conceitos e Ações de Restauração Florestal (Atlantic Forest of Brazil Restoration Pact: Introduction of Concepts, and Actions for Forest Restoration) . R. R. Rodrigues, P. H. S. Brancalion, and I. Isernhagen , editors. 2009. LERF/ESALQ, Instituto BioAtlântica, São Paulo, Brazil (in Portuguese). 259 pp. ISBN 978-85-60840-02-1 (Available from http://www.pactomataatlantica.org.br/ [accessed October 2010]).Ecological Restoration. A Global Challenge. F. A. Comín, editor. 2010. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 291 pp. $78 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-521-87711-4. Four recent books from four different continents show that ecological restoration is developing rapidly and has strong but variable links to environmental ethics, ecological and landscape engineering, and, of course, the science and practice of conservation. Ecological restoration assumes different forms in different political and cultural contexts worldwide, as illustrated by these four volumes. E. O. Wilson believed in 1992 that “[t]he next century…[would] be the era of restoration in ecology.” In 2010 ecological restoration is increasingly recognized as an important component of ecosystem management and environmental protection and planning. But restoration is now an umbrella term that may become devoid of the clear meaning required for legislation and rigorous cost-benefit projections and analyses. Ecological restoration is currently used to refer to activities that go far beyond the Society for Ecological Restoration International's definition of the term: “the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that is damaged, degraded, or destroyed” (SER 2004). In practice, the term inspires as much as it informs, but its use can also lead to confusion. Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land, The Restoration of Nature in Japan, Pacto Pela Restauraçao da Mata Atlântica, and Ecological Restoration. A Global Challenge present many fascinating variations on the meaning of restoration, but none of them offers a unifying vision. Perhaps it is too early in the century for that? Steven Apfelbaum and Alan Haney are both seasoned restoration practitioners from Wisconsin, a heartland of North American restoration practice and science. They write about restoring land on small, private holdings. The authors provide step-by-step guidance on executing and monitoring the restoration of grasslands, forests, wetlands, riparian areas, and even desert areas. It is a well-written, well-produced, and authoritative book, which I recommend wholeheartedly for readers with no appetite to tackle the specialized literature, but who have restoration projects in mind, at heart, or underway, especially on their own land. In Japan ecological restoration is in a major growth phase. Editor Toshio Hirose and the Tokai University Press present an English translation of an important book. They bring to the non-Japanese-reading world the first full account of ecological restoration work in Japan. The book describes in great detail a multitude of community-based projects run by engineers and biologists. These projects, carried out mostly on public lands, in general seem more concerned with ecological engineering than with ecological restoration. Conservation of biological diversity in the context of a social movement seeking development of a new relation between society and nature is the driver of these projects, which is also the case for the restoration movement in North America. The primary motivation of several of the case studies presented is the engineered creation of habitat for particular species (e.g., giant salamanders [Andrias japonicas] and Japanese Golden Eagles [Aquila chrysaetos japonica]) or the reconnection and enhancement of habitat for wild animals. Maintaining particular types of cultural landscapes, such as managed woodlands or traditional rice fields, in close proximity to cities is also discussed as is the challenge of restoring areas of “primeval nature” in national parks and controlling non-native organisms. Interestingly, the book contains only three references to non-Japanese publications. The final chapter provides an excellent and welcome discussion of the social values that underlie the restoration movement in Japan. The book also contains an illuminating discussion of recent Japanese laws, including a 2002 law that promotes “nature restoration.” As in Apfelbaum and Haney's book, there is no discussion of the economic costs and benefits of ecological restoration, a serious shortcoming in at least 95% of the literature on ecological restoration. Hirose's book and Pacto Pela Restauraçao da Mata Atlântica, which is in Portuguese, should dispel the notion that ecological restoration was invented in Wisconsin in the mid-twentieth century and is practiced only in North America. In fact, Brazil is a veritable hotbed of research and development in tropical forest restoration and shares the distinction, with South Africa and Japan, of implementing groundbreaking restoration legislation. Rodrigues et al. describe the techniques and underlying concepts and motivations for ongoing work in restoring (sensu SER 2004) the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, drawing from 30 years of scientific research. Its primary audience is people participating in or seeking to emulate the work of the 4-year-old Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact (AFRP), which is a consortium of more than 160 partners, including international nongovernmental organizations, private companies, workers' cooperatives, federal, state and municipal governments, and numerous research institutions in Brazil. The mission is to restore 15 million ha of the Atlantic Forest by 2050 and to help protect and sustain the remaining forest fragments. In the process, they will promote species protection, advance basic ecological and interdisciplinary research and its application, generate thousands of jobs and income opportunities, and provide goods and key ecosystem services to millions of people and businesses, including communities of various indigenous peoples, some of whom are collaborating actively in the project. The volume includes an eight-part section that describes the underlying concepts and methods for the identification of the ecological problems and implementation of restoration and monitoring. This is followed by a short section on the legal challenges to landowners and a beautifully illustrated 40-page technical manual that will be of use to people working in the field of ecological restoration anywhere in the tropics. Finally, there is an excellent and comprehensive bibliography and an appendix containing profiles of 10 ongoing projects taking place within the larger Atlantic Forest Restoration Project. I consider this one of the most important and ambitious biological-cultural restoration programs in the world. In Ecological Restoration. A Global Challenge, Francisco A. Comín has complied papers from around the world, some based on plenary talks at the 2005 Society for Ecological Restoration International (SERI) conference. I also recommend this book with certain reservations. Many of its chapters are stand-alone pieces by well-known veterans that summarize their recent work in ecological restoration (e.g., David Lamb's chapter on reforestation and forest restoration in the humid tropics, F. A. Comín's chapter on the uses, abuses, and restoration of coastal areas, Richard Forman's comparison of urban renewal and regreening efforts in Boston and Barcelona, and a review by Biojie Fu et al. called “Land degradation and Ecological Restoration in China.”). Two other notable chapters are those by William J. Mitsch, “Conservation, Restoration and Creation of Wetlands,” and Robert Costanza, “Value of a Restored Earth and Its Contribution to a Sustainable and Desirable Future.” None of the chapters, however, provide a clear picture of ecological restoration today, and the book does not provide a clear roadmap of the way forward. Part of the problem stems from the size of the territory. The very notion of ecological restoration as a global challenge implies a universal undertaking. Yet the 195 nations on the planet are not even close to working together to move toward what Costanza calls “a restored Earth” and a “sustainable and desirable future” for us all. Instead, ecological restoration is accomplished piecemeal and often with great confusion about its underlying concepts, benefits, and motivations. There is little clarity or consensus, even within the 1700-strong membership of SERI, about how to merge scientific rigor with popular enthusiasm and political will. The first three of these four books on ecological restoration will help practitioners, and all four will be of interest to students, social scientists, environmental lawyers and philosophers, and even historians who are studying the growing field of ecological restoration. Those looking for the cutting-edge science in restoration ecology will have to look elsewhere, as will those looking for a unified vision of ecological restoration as a discipline, field, and movement. It is alas true that the international peer-reviewed literature on restoration is heavily dominated by North American academics, and that over 75% of SERI members live in the United States and Canada. Yet, from Mexico and Cuba, all the way south to Argentina, in China, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and at least 10 countries in Europe an awful lot is also going on in ecological restoration and restoration ecology. The international flavor of these four books gives hope, at least, for a truly global effort at ecological restoration.

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