Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
PART V
Perspective: Eco-cultural Restoration
Whether indigenous or not, eco-cultural practices (i.e., the activities and practices of
a given people in a given space and time) have a tremendous influence on the envi-
ronment and culture (i.e., they create a sense of place). In this section, the authors
cover a range of eco-cultural activities, including restoration efforts by indigenous
peoples (Robin Kimmerer, Michelle Stevens), the use of eco-cultural history to help
direct landscape-level restoration in England (Ian D. Rotherham), and the creation of
eco-art to engage public discussion and arouse the public imagination (Lillian Ball
and her colleagues).
Robin Kimmerer, drawing on her indigenous heritage and work with various Na-
tive American tribes, opens this section with a discussion of reciprocal restoration,
which she describes as “the mutually reinforcing restoration of land and culture such
that repair of ecosystem services contributes to cultural revitalization and renewal of
culture promotes restoration of ecological integrity.” She also makes the case that tra-
ditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is particularly useful in identification of refer-
ence ecosystems, as a repository of detailed species information, and as a source of
guidance in understanding the role of human disturbance in landscape management.
Kimmerer also points out that ecosystem restoration is often coupled with cultural res-
toration in indigenous communities, which means that TEK is actively engaged as
people reclaim their heritage and responsibility for land.
Ian D. Rotherham's contribution looks at case studies in the English Midlands
where “rewilding” and “renaturing” projects are either in place or being planned.
While he understands the goals of many of these projects (e.g., landscape-scale de-
mands of plant and animal species responding and moving in the face of rapid
changes in climate, desire to offset carbon emissions, and the increasing need to miti-
gate and moderate flood risk), Rotherham argues that these projects are unsustainable
because they fail to take an eco-cultural perspective into account—a perspective that
would reintroduce or emulate former ways of sustainably interacting with the land
and serving the local economy.
Michelle Stevens provides an exciting case study of TEK with her report from Iraq
where efforts are under way to restore the
al Ahwar
or Mesopotamian marshlands as
