Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
complex natural resource management structure. Regional community-based net-
works are increasingly stepping into this space, and this represents an opportunity to
explore restorations on a larger scale.
Recent developments in reconciliation, including the federal government apology
to generations “stolen” from family groups by welfare intervention, have moved the di-
alogue about indigenous involvement in land management. Environmental restora-
tion has become a powerful and appropriate platform for social reconciliation. Heal-
ing the land can help heal the community. “Whitefella” is discovering that he can
learn much about the land from its traditional custodians, although much effort is
still required to encourage indigenous people to volunteer alongside nonindigenous
people.
There is much to be gained by further enabling volunteering within an integrated
response to coastal planning and management, particularly in the context of ecologi-
cal restoration. Policy response to coastal issues needs to further integrate, rather than
isolate, volunteer effort. The challenge is to develop an integrated sustainability ap-
proach within the multitude of planning systems and agencies. As long as land man-
agers treat volunteering as an afterthought, it will suffer from duplication of effort and
inefficiencies caused by poor communication and lack of planning around resources.
When coastal communities can be meaningfully included in this approach long-
term, successful change scenarios are more likely.
It is tempting to make generalizations about the movement and label the current
era one of transition. Have all the “easy” jobs been done? Are we shifting from a na-
scent repair model to a more ambitious one of restoration? After nearly two decades of
activity, the movement may now be in a state of consolidation, where the focus has
shifted toward applying best practice approaches; sharing information across innova-
tive, informal networks; and applying this expertise to bigger challenges, such as full-
scale restoration.
Environmental volunteering will continue to be influenced by emerging con-
cerns. Biodiversity is arguably better understood and more valued in the mainstream
than it was fifteen years ago. For example, we have a much stronger notion of ecosys-
tem services than before. This may emerge as a new driver for community-led restora-
tion. Sea-level rise and increased storm events due to climate change are now also un-
derstood to be mainstream concerns, particularly among low-elevation coastal
communities (see chap. 13, this volume). In the long-term view, one might surmise
that such restorations will be more valued as emerging concerns gain validity in the
broader community.
Benefits of coastal stewardship extend beyond the restorative outcomes. Active par-
ticipation by locals in such groups contributes to community building in coastal
towns, bringing social benefits and improving the quality of life for those participants.
The engagement of local people can boost the resource protection efforts of enforce-
ment agencies with additional “eyes and ears,” such as in the case of poaching of ma-
rine life and removal or destruction of native vegetation. Community involvement in
restoration projects may result in more people developing a deeper engagement with
nature; a precursor to sustainable coastal townships.
