How can environmental degradation be stopped? How can it be reversed? And how can the damage already done be repaired? The authors of this volume argue that a two-pronged approach is needed: reducing demand for ecosystem goods and services and better management of them, coupled with an increase in supply through environmental restoration.
Restoring Natural Capital brings together economists and ecologists, theoreticians, practitioners, policy makers, and scientists from the developed and developing worlds to consider the costs and benefits of repairing ecosystem goods and services in natural and socioecological systems. It examines the business and practice of restoring natural capital, and seeks to establish common ground between economists and ecologists with respect to the restoration of degraded ecosystems and landscapes and the still broader task of restoring natural capital. The book focuses on developing strategies that can achieve the best outcomes in the shortest amount of time as it:
• considers conceptual and theoretical issues from both an economic
and ecological perspective
• examines specific strategies to foster the restoration of natural
capital and offers a synthesis and a vision of the way forward
Nineteen case studies from around the world illustrate challenges and achievements in setting targets, refining approaches to finding and implementing restoration projects, and using restoration of natural capital as an economic opportunity. Throughout, contributors make the case that the restoration of natural capital requires close collaboration among scientists from across disciplines as well as local people, and when successfully executed represents a practical, realistic, and essential tool for achieving lasting sustainable development.
Restoring Natural Capital: Science, Business, and Practice
By James Aronson, Suzanne J. Milton, James N. BlignautISLAND PRESS
Copyright © 2007 Island Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-59726-077-0Contents
SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION INTERNATIONAL,
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
FOREWORD,
PREFACE,
PART I - Restoring Natural Capital: The Conceptual Landscape,
Chapter 1 - Restoring Natural Capital: Definitions and Rationale,
Chapter 2 - Restoring Natural Capital: A Reflection on Ethics,
Chapter 3 - Restoring Natural Capital: An Ecological Economics Assessment,
Chapter 4 - Restoring Natural Capital: A Mainstream Economic Perspective,
Chapter 5 - Assessing and Restoring Natural Capital Across Scales: Lessons from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
Chapter 6 - Assessing the Loss of Natural Capital: A Biodiversity Intactness Index,
PART II - Restoring Natural Capital: Experiences and Lessons,
Chapter 7 - Setting Appropriate Restoration Targets for Changed Ecosystems in the Semiarid Karoo, South Africa,
Chapter 8 - Targeting Sustainable Options for Restoring Natural Capital in Madagascar,
Chapter 9 - Landscape Function as a Target for Restoring Natural Capital in Semiarid Australia,
Chapter 10 - Genetic Integrity as a Target for Natural Capital Restoration: Weighting the Costs and Benefits,
Chapter 11 - Restoring and Maintaining Natural Capital in the Pacific Northwest, USA,
Chapter 12 - Restoring Natural Capital Reconnects People to Their Natural Heritage: Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand,
Chapter 13 - Restoring Forage Grass to Support the Pastoral Economy of Arid Patagonia,,
Chapter 14 - A Community Approach to Restore Natural Capital: The Wildwood Project, Scotland,
Chapter 15 - An Adoptive Comanagement Approach to Restoring Natural Capital in Communal Areas of South Africa,
Chapter 16 - Participatory Use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Restoring Natural Capital in Agroecosystems of Rural India,
Chapter 17 - Overcoming Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital: Large-Scale Restoration on the Sacramento River,
Chapter 18 - An Approach to Quantify the Economic Value of Restoring Natural Capital: A Case from South Africa,
Chapter 19 - Capturing the Economic Benefits from Restoring Natural Capital in Transformed Tropical Forests,
Chapter 20 - Restoring Natural Forests to Make Medicinal Bark Harvesting Sustainable in South Africa,
Chapter 21 - Assessing Costs, Benefits, and Feasibility of Restoring Natural Capital in Subtropical Thicket in South Africa,
Chapter 22 - Costs and Benefits of Restoring Natural Capital Following Alien Plant Invasions in Fynbos Ecosystems in South Africa,
Chapter 23 - Return of Natural, Social, and Financial Capital to the Hole Left by Miming,
Chapter 24 - Protecting and Restoring Natural Capital in New York City's Watersheds to Safeguard Water,
Chapter 25 - Making the Restoration of Natural Capital Profitable on Private Land: Koa Forestry on Hawaii Island,
PART III - Restoring Natural Capital: Tactics and Strategies,
Chapter 26 - Valuing Natural Capital and the Costs and Benefits of Restoration,
Chapter 27 - A Decision-Analysis Framework for Proposal Evaluation of Natural Capital Restoration,
Chapter 28 - Overcoming Physical and Biological Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital,
Chapter 29 - Overcoming Socioeconomic Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital,
Chapter 30 - Overcoming Obstacles at a Global Scale to Restore Natural Capital,
Chapter 31 - Managing Our Global Footprint Through Restoration of Natural Capital at a Global Scale,
Chapter 32 - Making Restoration Work: Financial Mechanisms,
Chapter 33 - Making Restoration Work: Nonmonetary Mechanisms,
PART IV - Synthesis,
Chapter 34 - Mainstreaming the Restoration of Natural Capital: A Conceptual and Operational Framework,
Chapter 35 - Restoring Toward a Better Future,
GLOSSARY,
REFERENCES,
EDITORS,
CONTRIBUTORS,
INDEX,
Island Press Board of Directors,
CHAPTER 1
Restoring Natural Capital: Definitions and Rationale
JAMES ARONSON, SUZANNE J. MILTON, AND JAMES N. BLIGNAUT
The restoration of natural capital is arguably one of the most radical ideas to emerge in recent years, because it links two imperatives—economics and ecology—whose proponents have been at loggerheads for decades. In economically developed and developing countries alike, however, we have to acknowledge that humans have transformed ecosystems to the extent that the supply of life-essential ecosystem goods and services is seriously threatened (Wackernagel and Rees 1997). This fact is summarized by two conclusions from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA 2005f):
Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.
The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of the degradation of many ecosystem services, increased risks of nonlinear changes, and the exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people. These problems, unless addressed, will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems.
We argue that natural capital has become a limiting factor for human well-being and economic sustainability (Costanza and Daly 1992; Daly and Farley 2004; Aronson, Clewell, et al. 2006; Farley and Daly 2006; Dresp 2006) and advocate that the restoration of natural capital is the most direct and effective remedy for redressing the debilitating socioeconomic and political effects of its scarcity. Conservation, and reducing waste are indispensable, but likewise the investment in the restoration of natural capital that augments the pool of natural capital stock and hence stimulates the supply (or flow) of ecosystem goods and services (Repetto 1993; Cairns 1993; Jansson et al. 1994; Clewell 2000). The restoration of natural capital includes ecological restoration, but it goes further. The restoration of natural capital also considers the socioeconomic interface between humans and the natural environment. By functioning within this interface, the restoration of natural capital builds bridges between economists and ecologists and thereby offers new alternatives for ecologically viable economic development. It also offers new hope for bridging the worrisome gaps between scientists and nonscientists and between developed and underdeveloped countries.
Definitions of Terms and Concepts
Here we define a number of key terms pertinent to the concepts of restoration and natural capital, and explain how this focus complements related approaches to ecosystem repair and raises awareness of the need to make development ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable.
Natural Capital
Generally, development and the improvement of life quality are not possible without a growing asset, or capital, base. The concept c apital, however, is not homogenous since one can distinguish between five principal forms of capital (Rees 1995; MA 2005f):
• Financial capital (money or its...
