Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Wetland restoration,
enhancement and creation
13.1 Introduction
To provide sustainable solutions for degraded
ecosystems, restoration ecology is i rmly
grounded in scientii c understandings of how
ecosystems function and their resilience and
vulnerabilities. It also incorporates an under-
standing of ecological engineering or bio-
engineering techniques to provide suitable
alternatives (Mitsch and Jørgensen 2003). Fur-
thermore, restoration ecologists are attentive
to the critical role played by communities and
stakeholders in the long-term success of such
undertakings and are focused on enhancing
the joint socio-ecological value of restored
ecosystems.
In general usage, the term “restoration”
implies a return to some previous state. Yet,
what should this state be? For some, it invokes
the notion of a wilderness state prior to human
intervention. However, not only is this impracti-
cal across most of the world today, but it also
negates the vital role humans play in shaping
our environments, including wetlands. The
Society for Ecological Restoration International
suggests that restoration activities must be tar-
geted to accelerate ecosystem recovery with
respect to its health (functional processes),
integrity (species composition and community
structure), and sustainability (resistance to dis-
turbance and resilience) (Clewell, Rieger and
Munro 2005, p. 2). Thus, restoration projects
should direct attention to process and function
rather than recapturing the conditions present
The contemporary i eld of restoration ecology
has relatively recent origins, dating back to
the early 1980s. It draws theoretically from dis-
ciplines such as ecology and conservation
biology. While ecology focuses on the interac-
tions between organisms and their environment,
conservation biology studies and monitors indi-
vidual species and ecosystems with the aim of
providing appropriate management strategies
for their conservation. Both these i elds provide
the scientii c and theoretical basis for restora-
tion ecology.
Restoration ecology focuses broadly on
restoring habitats that may have been degraded
or converted to other land uses through human
or other modii cations. The Society for Eco-
logical Restoration International (SERI), an
organization that promotes the restoration of
ecosystems, dei ned it as “the recovery of an
ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged,
or destroyed” (SERI 2004). A more specii c dei -
nition is provided by Cairns (1988, p. 3), who
suggested that restoration ecology comprises
the “full or partial placement of structural or
functional characteristics that have been extin-
guished or diminished and the substitution of
alternative qualities . . . with the proviso that
they have more social, economic, or ecological
value than existed in the disturbed or displaced
state.”
