IUCN - The World Conversation Union

Ecosystem Restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed.

Many of the world's ecosystems have undergone significant degradation with negative impacts on biological diversity and peoples' livelihoods. There is a growing realization that we will not be able to conserve the earth's biological diversity through protection of critical areas alone. Ecosystem Restoration should be a primary component of conservation and sustainable development programmes so that livelihoods of people depending on these degraded ecosystems can be sustained.

Ecosystem Restoration is thus a key contribution to the application of the Ecosystem Approach, e.g. in informing the negotiation of land use options and in the enhancement of ecological networks. The Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) has identified Ecosystem Restoration as one of its five priority programmatic elements.




Contacts
For more information please contact CEM's theme leader on Ecosystem Restoration: Dr. David Lamb on d.lam@uq.edu.au