Disturbance and Impairment
We humans are adept at manipulating our biophysical environment. Our ancient ancestors had no choice but to modify their home ecosystems in order to eke out subsistence and secure their survival. In this regard, they were no different from other animal sp
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Disturbance and Impairment
We humans are adept at manipulating our biophysical environment. Our ancient ancestors had no choice but to modify their home ecosystems in order to eke out subsistence and secure their survival. In this regard, they were no different from other animal species (see Jones et al. 1994; Lavelle 1997; Rosamund and Anderson 2003; Vermeij 2004). Beavers impound streams and radically alter the environments of catchments. Forest corridors used by Asian elephants are recognizable by characteristic bamboo-dominated ecosystems that develop in response to the mechanical damage caused as these large beasts move about. Termites construct complex edifices with intricate thermodynamic properties and strong impact on soils. Even fungi and bacteria modify their environments proportionately to their small size by exuding enzymes that digest enveloping organic matter. Today, the burgeoning human population’s demand for ecosystem resources worldwide is causing ecological impairment at an increasing rate, and the biosphere and almost all the Earth’s ecosystems are degrading in response. The human population has tripled over the past century. Vast numbers of people from poverty-stricken regions remain in subsistence mode, partly as a result of their traditional forms of exploitation of ecosystems in their quest for survival and, even more so, due to flagrant injustice and aggression within and among human societies. Overgrazing by domestic livestock and excessive harvest of wood for fuel are common examples of the first problem. Wars and colonial invasions top the list of drivers for the second problem. Concurrently, a miniscule elite of affluent people, tellingly called “biosphere people” by Indian ecologist Madhav Gadgil (1995), threaten ecosystem integrity, health, and sustainability globally through their excessive demands for ecosystem goods and services from all points of the compass. Ecological restoration attempts to rectify ecological impairment and ad-
A.F. Clewell and J. Aronson, Ecological Restoration: Principles, Values, and Structure of an Emerging Profession, The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration, DOI 10.5822/978-1-59726-323-8_3, © 2013 Andre F. Clewell and James Aronson
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ecological restoration: principles, values, and structure of an emerging profession
dress the larger problems mentioned just now, and it merits serious consideration as a strategy to help offset and indeed reduce the growing human ecological imprint and footprint as we strive for greater social justice and sustainability in this young twenty-first century. Should restorationists also attempt to repair and recover ecosystems that were harmed by nonhuman-mediated phenomena? Even without “help” from people, mountainsides can fail and bury forests beneath debris. Presumed natural ecological damages, though, are sometimes mediated or intensified by human agency. Mountainsides fail after forests are harvested, exposing soils to unchecked erosion. Mangroves would have ameliorated the ecological damage of the gr
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