Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 14
Merging Economics and Ecology in
Ecological Restoration
YEON-SU KIM AND EVAN E. HJERPE
The late Kenneth Boulding contended, “Mathematics brought rigor to economics.
Unfortunately it also brought mortis.” Although it would be fair to say that economics
is not the only discipline suffering from this type of rigor mortis, the public's disap-
pointment with mainstream economic theory has been more pronounced because of
mainstream economic failures in solving real-life problems (Blag 1998; Wilson 1998;
Gowdy 2000). Even the 1996 Nobel Laureate of Economics, William Vickrey, dis-
missed his prize-winning 1961 paper as “one of my digressions into abstract econom-
ics. . . . At best, it's of minor significance in terms of human welfare” (Cassidy 1996,
50). Is the future of the dismal science that dismal? We argue not, precisely because of
the earlier self-reflections prompted by the chorus of critics. “Those scholars working
on the frontiers of economics have firmly put behind them the inward-looking reduc-
tionism” and, as a result, economics is enjoying a “remarkable creative renaissance”
refocusing its efforts to help solve real-life problems (Coyle 2007).
The emergence of ecological economics in the late 1980s is a good example of this
renaissance. Its clear focus is to help answer the questions that really matter, such as,
How can we humans, as a species, have a long and happy life? Currently, many prob-
lems that humans encounter, and which we try to repair through efforts such as eco-
logical restoration, have been attributed to past management actions that have dra-
matically altered ecosystems. For example, ponderosa pine ecosystems were rapidly
changed by livestock grazing, high-grade logging, fire suppression, and some forms
of recreation during the last 120 years in the American Southwest (ERI 2008). Many
unintended ecological consequences of these altered ecosystems have been well doc-
umented (e.g., Covington and Moore 1994) and, as in numerous other degraded
landscapes, ecological restoration has been proposed to help return these ecosystems
to a healthier, more natural trajectory. However, the public and even many conserva-
tionists view ecological restoration as “an expensive self-indulgence for the upper
class” (Kirby 1994, 240) or “a diversion, a delusion and . . . a waste of money” (Aron-
son et al. 2006a). If advocates of ecological restoration are to convince their critics and
gain broader support, they need to better incorporate socioeconomic and political
