Are Socioeconomic Benefits of Restoration Adequately Quantified? A Meta-analysis of Recent Papers (2000-2008) inRestoration Ecologyand 12 Other Scientific Journals

Abstract

Many ecosystems have been transformed, or degraded by human use, and restoration offers an opportunity to recover services and benefits, not to mention intrinsic values. We assessed whether restoration scientists and practitioners use their projects to demonstrate the benefits restoration can provide in their peer-reviewed publications. We evaluated a sample of the academic literature to determine whether links are made explicit between ecological restoration, society, and public policy related to natural capital. We analyzed 1,582 peer-reviewed papers dealing with ecological restoration published between 1 January 2000 and 30 September 2008 in 13 leading scientific journals. As selection criterion, we considered papers that contained either "restoration" or "rehabilitation" in their title, abstract, or keywords. Furthermore, as one-third of the papers were published in Restoration Ecology, we used that journal as a reference for comparison with all the other journals. We readily acknowledge that aquatic ecosystems are under-represented, and that the largely inaccessible gray literature was ignored. Within these constraints, we found clear evidence that restoration practitioners are failing to signal links between ecological restoration, society, and policy, and are underselling the evidence of benefits of restoration as a worthwhile investment for society. We discuss this assertion and illustrate it with samples of our findings-with regards to (1) the geographical and institutional affiliations of authors; (2) the choice of ecosystems studied, methods employed, monitoring schemes applied, and the spatial scale of studies; and (3) weak links to payments for ecosystem service setups, agriculture, and ramifications for public policy.

Restoring forests: What constitutes success in the twenty-first century?

“…3), suggesting that we are in the infancy of navigating these dynamic and critical issues that have long-lasting consequences toward success of forest restoration programs. Progress in effectively incorporating genetic considerations into forest restoration will require improved integration of both social and biological feedback (Aronson et al 2010;Jacobs et al 2013). Brief presentation of special issue content A total of 21 original research or review articles covering a wide range of issues in forest restoration are included in this Special Issue; here, we highlight some of these.…”

Instrumentos legais podem contribuir para a restauração de florestas tropicais biodiversas

“…Cerca de 80% da pesquisa em restauração ecológica publicada em periódicos internacionais tem sido conduzida em países desenvolvidos (ARONSON et al, 2010), embora 26 dos 34 Hotspots estejam inseridos em países tropicais em desenvolvimento (MYERS et al, 2000), onde as pesquisas nessa área seriam mais necessárias. Tal descompasso entre a pesquisa e a urgente demanda de ações de conservação e restauração nos países em desenvolvimento sinaliza que não há tempo a perder e que políticas públicas devem ser construídas em prol da biodiversidade e de seus valores, mesmo considerando a grande carência de informações, adotando-se o princípio da precaução.…”

Novel ecosystems and social-ecological resilience

“…Currently, the more prominent areas of exploration include ecosystem service provision (e.g. Aronson et al 2010 As humans abandon an area, and cease to impart any energy into it, from a landscape level down to individual species and communities, ecological processes will take over in their absence. However, humans do not necessarily just abandon damaged areas completely, so a new relationship emerges (Collier and Scott 2008 and what opportunities may be missed.…”