A new article published by an interdisciplinary team of scholars in Science calls on policy communities to take up a set of holistic guiding principles for ecological restoration projects. Matthew Baker, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems, is co-author of the article and is part of an interdisciplinary working group on restoration funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC).
“Bringing their collective perspectives to bear in a series of workshops, the interdisciplinary team determined that restoration projects should be guided by four comprehensive principles to maximize benefits such as conserved biodiversity and sustained livelihoods. The authors concluded that ecological restoration should [1] increase ecological integrity, [2] be sustainable in the long-term, [3] be informed by the past and future, and [4] benefit and engage society. Initiatives that emphasize one principle over the full suite are not true restoration—and therefore are insufficient to address restoration goals of international agreements such as the Declaration on Forests,” a SESYNC press release about the article stated.
To read the full article in Science titled “Committing to ecological restoration,” click here. To read more information about the research on the SESYNC website, click here.
This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875.
