The issue of scale is fundamental to ecology and conservation biology and scaling up is particularly important to the latter. As scientists continue to identify and refine tools and techniques for addressing the biodiversity crisis, they look to deepen their impact by working at increasingly broader scales. Studying and implementing ecological restoration techniques at local scales alone is a difficult task, given the challenges of bounding ecological systems, identifying appropriate targets, effectively measuring results, and generalizing from one system to another. Scaling up from local to regional or global levels adds even more complexity. The global arena for restoration ecology is the focus of this volume, edited by Francisco Comín and with chapters authored by a who’s who in the field of restoration.
The book is divided into two major parts: the first outlining global perspectives and research and the second focused on practical applications at the global scale. Comín sets the stage in the first chapter by emphasizing why action needs to take place on the global and not just local or regional scale. While he provides more of a general overview of restoration ecology than specifics on global-scale restoration, he clearly articulates the underlying socio-ecological concerns. Chapter 2 addresses the global carbon cycle, laying out our current knowledge about, and methods for measuring, carbon sources and sinks in terrestrial systems. The authors contend that the terrestrial carbon cycle is particularly unpredictable because of the influence of human activities and that restoration activities can help to stabilize and improve carbon uptake and storage. Chapter 3 provides an overview of emerging international carbon markets, which have the potential to support restoration of forest systems, and explores the potential conflict between carbon market goals and restoration aims. Chapter 4, by Robert Costanza, contrasts the business as usual future scenario with a restored earth scenario, and provides a general overview of ways to achieve a sustainable and desirable future. Chapter 5 briefly articulates the importance of local, cultural aspects to complement (and to some extent counter) sophisticated ecological techniques and trends towards national and international standards for restoration practice. Chapter 6 encourages consideration of the ethical dimensions of restoration, including attention to democratic participation in planning and implementation.
The first chapter in Part II, by David Lamb, details two interesting case studies—from Australia and Vietnam—that underscore the importance of incorporating underlying macroeconomic factors into restoration planning at larger, landscape-level, scales. Chapter 8 looks at restoration efforts across various ecosystems in China, with mini case studies for some of these. In Chapter 9, William Mitsch discusses wetland restoration from a global perspective, providing specifics on wetland loss across the globe as well as brief case studies from the USA and the Mesopotamian marshlands. Comín coauthors Chapter 10 on restoration in coastal areas, defining the various coastal systems (including urbanized coastal zones), their benefits to humans and threats to their future. Richard Forman covers urban systems in Chapter 11, with planning case studies from Boston and Barcelona, as well as more global discussions of collaborations between urban planners and natural resource planners. Chapter 12 addresses the role of ecological modelling, with a very focused look at two specific models that have been applied in various systems across the world. Amos Brandeis concludes the book with a chapter on two restoration projects situated in areas of conflict, the Alexander River Restoration Project, on a cross-border river in the Middle East, and the Lake Bam project in Burkina Faso. Brandeis details the challenges and opportunities for cooperation across divides to implement restoration activities.
While uneven in quality, the chapters across this book are a step in the right direction for planning and implementing restoration beyond local scales and in determining the distinction between local, landscape/regional and global scale restoration efforts. Happily most of the cases are of areas not previously covered in restoration literature. Particularly important is the book’s effort to address the political, economic and cultural context for restoration planning and implementation.
