Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Even at regional scales the unique cultural heritage that drove former ecology and
forms vital links to future heritage tourismmay be lost. A fundamental problem is that
gross changes are driven by economic “progress,” while most conservation initiatives
are cosmetic, not economic. A more meaningful conservation response would be to
record local cultural knowledge and then rebuild and celebrate local connectivity
with nature, valuing local traditions and uses. It may be neither possible nor necessar-
ily desirable to return to subsistence living, but long-term solutions must be economi-
cally sustainable. To maintain important traditional landscapes, and in particular
their threatened biodiversity, requires that creation, restoration, and subsequent man-
agement must produce ecological conditions that mimic the original. In most ecosys-
tems with traditional cultural management this means lowered biomass and nutrients
(especially nitrogen), regular microdisturbance, and effective movement of propa-
gules to regeneration niches. Many sites are isolated and fragmented within the land-
scape, which causes dispersal and connectivity issues, and the sites are generally des-
iccated compared to their original condition. This means that approaches must be
more ambitious and radical than anything yet achieved. Webb (1986, 1998) consid-
ered the conservation of European heathlands, landscapes typical of some of the study
sites, and was not optimistic. The fenland restoration projects consider these issues
but have not found long-term solutions for all the problems. The new fens will be
wonderful wildlife sites and will attract huge numbers of visiting tourists. However,
they will neither look like nor function like the original fens. Taken across the broad
sweep of restoration projects, in a diversity of British environments, I was unable
to find any that effectively bind restoration to long-term cultural and economic uti-
lization. Without this reconnection, projects will achieve environmental reconstruc-
tion but will neither achieve nor maintain restoration of the former landscapes and
ecologies.
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