Restoration, Ecological Citizenry, and Ziggurat Building in Iraq - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 10

define ecological restoration more precisely, but this creates its own problem because
it becomes very difficult to come up with a single definition that captures all the
likely cases.
The potential of restoration to reconnect humans with nature is profound. The
view of restoration theorist William Jordan (2003) is grounded in existentialism,
claiming that the very act of being alive entails a necessary component of destruc-
tion which results in a shame. Jordan and Turner (2007) believe that we need rituals
to help us overcome this shame and use this as a metaphysical tool in order to enable
us to become better citizens.
Ecological restoration is important for creating a cadre of ecological citizens
(Light 2000, 2007; France 2007b). Survey work has shown, for example, that many
of the volunteers who would not have called themselves environmentalists before
they became involved in various restoration projects now do so. Feelings of neigh-
borhood confraternity and a sense of learning ecological history (that can develop
very quickly, sometimes within only a few weeks, through engagement in restoration
projects) can help to build this connectivity. And once this connectivity is in place,
other unforeseen environmental benefits can ensue. Chicago, for example, now has
the most ambitious green roof program in the country, avidly supported by the mayor,
which might be directly related to the success of the wilderness restoration project
and its created community of environmental advocates that cut across ideological
differences (Light 2004). In contrast, New York's attempts to create a regional green
network have been more difficult because, unlike in Chicago, there has not yet been
a major restoration project for them to undertake together which would build that
feeling of community and environmental citizenry.

RESTORATION AND RELATIONSHIPS
Light (2004) asked the following questions: if one of the values of restoration is its
potential to get people physically connected with the land around them, to form rela-
tionships with the land, then how are we to understand these relationships and what
are their qualities? And what does that mean in terms of our future relationships with
the land if we do restoration as opposed to something else?
Relationships are not just defined by reciprocity and obligation. Normative rela-
tionships, for example, do not have to be justified in their creation of a form for
interaction which results in actions. So what kind of guidance can this give us? We
can have this sort of special relationship with a place based on accumulated per-
sonal history, as for example the marshland dwellers have in relation to the marshes
(Al-Khayoun 2007). Light (2004) continued to ask a series of questions and posited
answers based on this idea of relationship building:

• Do members of a particular marsh Arab family have presumptively decisive

reasons to object to the destruction of the marshes? Absolutely yes.

• Do these same individuals have presumptively decisive reasons not to wan-

tonly destroy the marshes? Yes, of course.

• Do these marsh dwellers exhibit virtues and vices in relation to their inter-

action with the marshes? Yes, as well.