Need of transdisciplinary research for accelerating land restoration during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Abstract

The United Nations has declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to gear up the restoration of degraded ecosystems worldwide and thereby facilitating the timely realization of the UN‐SDGs and post‐2020 biodiversity targets. The UN Decade will also further the targets of the Bonn Challenge and several other ongoing restoration initiatives. While restoration is often viewed as a branch of applied ecology, transdisciplinarity is essential for implementing restoration on the ground successfully. The present article is therefore aimed to propose a transdisciplinary framework consisting of three defined phases ‐such as (1) the problem identification phase, (2) its analysis, and (3) finally the integration and application of transdisciplinary approaches for effective land restoration. This integrated framework would help in drawing strategic measures by crossing various disciplinary boundaries to accelerate land restoration efforts globally while deriving co‐benefits during restoration for maintaining the continuity of the restoration drive. We conclude that the implementation of the proposed framework along with due consideration of the regional and location‐specific attributes, management strategies as well as the successful involvement of various stakeholders will lead to a successful restoration Decade.

Trade-offs and synergies in ecosystem services for sustainability

“…TDR applications for ES aim to contribute to the world's most pressing environmental challenges (Munns et al, 2015;Steger et al, 2021). Accordingly, TDR may reveal ES supply, ES demands and ES drivers (Edrisi and Abhilash, 2021;White et al, 2021) (D→ A, B & C: +). This approach also allows for identification of ES trade-offs and synergies for supporting the vitality of natural resources, thereby helping minimize the trade-offs in the degraded ecosystems and maximize various co-benefits (Quintas-Soriano et al, 2018;Auerswald et al, 2019;Edrisi and Abhilash, 2021) (D→ E, F: +).…”

“…In the context of the Decade 2021-2030 on Ecosystem Restoration for preventing, halting, and reversing ecosystem degradation globally (Edrisi and Abhilash, 2021;Fischer et al, 2021), TDR might provide the way to explore new dimensions, identify, understand, and analyze the hidden issues of ES by applying appropriate different disciplines (whereas they might be overlooked by a single discipline), and provide novel solutions to complex problems in the real world co-developed by diverse stakeholders (Blythe et al, 2017;Edrisi and Abhilash, 2021) (D→ E, F: +). Furthermore, the integration of TDR with other rational approaches will allow for comprehensive discovery of "win-win" outcomes to sustainability challenges (Bergendahl et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2019).…”

Site prioritization and the reproduction of inequity in the restoration of Biscayne Bay

“…A critical perspective on scientific theory is common across critical geography subfields, but CPG differs from approaches like political ecology through greater emphasis on biophysical processes and explanations (Lave, 2015) and a commitment to critique within, rather than critique of, environmental science (Tadaki et al, 2015). This distinction points to CPG's emphasis on reflexivity and “changing intellectual practice through interdisciplinary research” (Lave, 2015, p. 572), both of which have been identified as priorities in restoration (Boyce et al, 2022; Edrisi & Abhilash, 2021).…”

Developing sustainable measures to restore fly‐ash contaminated lands: Current challenges and future prospects

“…If this concern remains unresolved, it may lead to the inefficient application of the plantation systems and eventually could result in failure for the adopted measures. For example, many restoration projects, like reforestation programmes and others, have had limited native seedlings supply, and hence restoration resulted in much slower accomplishments than expected (Edrisi & Abhilash, 2022;Höhl et al, 2020). This problem resulted from the lack of knowledge about the native plantation and agroforestry approaches.…”