Strengthening Landscape Ecology’s Contribution to a Sustainable Environment - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 29

can provide potential solutions to real-world landscape sustainability problems. As
a discipline, restoration ecology has experienced rapid growth in recent years. It
assumes that many degrading stressors are temporary and that it is possible to
change a damaged ecosystem to a state that is within an acceptable limit relative to a
less-disturbed ecosystem (Young 2000 ; Palmer et al. 2006 ; Hobbs et al. 2009 ).
Restoration activities include reinstating historical assemblages of plants and ani-
mals, and enhancing ecosystem functions/services such as retaining water, energy,
or nutrients (Falk et al. 2006 ; Tongway and Ludwig 2010 ).
According to Bell et al. ( 1997 ), restoration and landscape ecology have an
''unexplored mutualistic relationship that could enhance research and application
of both disciplines''. A landscape approach recognises that the whole is more than
the sum of the parts, and may assist in addressing spatial and temporal prioriti-
sation issues related to practical constraints in restoration actions (Possingham and
Nicholson 2007 ). Restoration can also benefit landscape ecology by providing
information derived from restoration ecology projects to test basic questions,
especially those linked to landscape structure and function (Bell et al. 1997 ).
Systematic landscape restoration or landscape reconstruction is designed to
reverse the adverse effects of habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation. It is
critical for achieving cost-effective environmental outcomes, which balance the
many conflicts of interest and competing demands for land with the need to restore
landscapes for the protection of biodiversity (Crossman et al. 2007 ). Landscape
reconstruction involves integrating a portfolio of passive and active restoration
actions within a spatial framework to achieve landscape synergies between patches
often with differing restoration objectives, with the ultimate ecological goal being
to restore the structure, function and native biodiversity (both plant and animals) of
degraded landscapes (Vesk and Mac Nally 2006 ). Similar to the problem-solving
framework outlined above, systematic landscape restoration involves clearly
defining the problem, recognising the complex makeup of landscapes and the
socio-economic interests of the inhabitants, and establishing a multi-disciplinary
team to work together with stakeholders to find solutions to restoration problems
(Crossman et al. 2010 ). Ultimately, landscape reconstruction is dependent on
successful restoration actions at the site-scale. The reconstruction of whole land-
scapes is a prerequisite for recovering threatened or declining animal populations,
but the design may be species-dependent. This requires consideration of context
attributes such as remnant landscape patches and riparian areas when deciding
where to restore vegetation because proximity to these elements can affect res-
toration outcomes at the site-scale (Grimbacher and Catterall 2007 ).
2.6 Key Principles
In summary, if landscape ecology is to strengthen its contribution to the urgent
problems hindering landscape sustainability, there are certain key principles that
researchers should consider.