Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
decades, we can expect the continuation of extensive
marginal agricultural land abandonment in formerly
densely populated rural areas, with intensification of
agriculture in the most productive areas. The EU's
Common Agricultural Policy has already strongly
influenced the management and ecological trajectory
of many marginal fields, for example through EEC
regulation 2080/92 (EC 1992b) promoting afforesta-
tion of set-aside fields. Consequently, set-aside fields
offer numerous, propitious settings for programmes and
experiments in ecological restoration, in the frame-
work of guidelines and demands of the international
treaties, and the specific contexts of local priorities,
risks and sensitivities.
In relation to the Climate Change Convention
(UNFCCC 1994), meanwhile, the Kyoto Protocol
(UNFCCC 1997) is progressively encouraging mon-
etary market mechanisms to participate in the regu-
lation of greenhouse gas emissions and to finance
restoration or mitigation measures to enhance carbon
sequestration. Climate-change scenarios are already
being considered for carbon management and they cer-
tainly merit careful reflection on appropriate strat-
egies and techniques for ecological restoration. Given
the spatial variability of expected climate change, the
question is how to incorporate predicted (near-)future
climate scenarios in specific ecological restoration
projects. Clearly, we must anticipate ecosystem and
ecoregional changes and migrations, but there are
compelling cultural pressures to retain and emulate
contemporary (or recent historical) references (see
below) in the design of ecological restoration projects.
From a certain point of view, however, such an
approach would represent an attempt to resist - or deny
- projected climate changes. In southern Europe,
for example, the question arises, should we favour the
persistence of species, or species assemblage charac-
teristic of drier climates to anticipate the predicted
intensification of drought in this ecoregion? In the
framework of the UNCCD Annex IV for the northern
Mediterranean Region (UNCCD 2001), the European
Mediterranean countries are developing National
Action Plans towards combat desertification that
include afforestation and reforestation projects, and
other active measures to mitigate land degradation and
preventing wildfires.
The ACACIA report (Parry 2000) on the potential
effects of climate change in Europe suggests that
policies aiming at conserving diversity and various
ecosystem services should be based on detailed
regional assessment, since impacts are regionally
variable with regard to both climate and land-use diver-
sity. These various projects and reports all include
ecosystem-management measures, but the economic
and ecological connections among conservation,
management and restoration activities are generally
not spelled out. In relation to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD 2003), for example, habitat
restoration and other practical measures for protect-
ing species diversity and eco-management at landscape
scales should be specified for the (semi-)natural agri-
cultural and urbanized peri-urban areas.
17.3 Evaluation of whole systems
In addition to the need for greater integration of
CMR, there is a clear need for great coherence and
connectivity among three major components of
restoration itself (Tongway & Ludwig 2002).
1 Historical, geographical and ecological assessment
of ecosystem or landscape degradation (How did
things get this way?).
2 Technical and institutional means responsible for
responding to ecosystem damage and degradation
or transformation.
3 Monitoring techniques for evaluating progress
towards a desired, or a satisfactory, outcome within
a certain timeframe.
We would add the following to Tongway and
Ludwig's list.
4 Realistic and holistic eco-economic budgeting
and accounting for damage to, and reparation of
ecosystems - including socio-economic systems -
which represent the stock from which societies
draw natural capital.
Evaluation includes both diagnosis and monitoring, and
provides the retrospective and on-going data sets that
not only allow programmes to be evaluated holistic-
ally, but also allow fine-tuning by managers. We
present these ideas schematically in Fig. 17.1. As van
 
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