The emergence of the social-ecological restoration concept
Résumé
Abstract
Many ecosystems in the world are the result of a close interaction between local people and their environment, which are currently recognized as social-ecological systems (SoES). Natural catastrophes or longstanding social and political turmoil can degrade these
SoES to a point where human societies are no longer autonomous and their supporting ecosystems are highly degraded.
Here we focus on the special case of the restoration of SoES that we call social-ecological restoration (SoER), which is characterized as a restoration process that cannot avoid simultaneously dealing with ecological and social issues. In practice,
SoER is analogous in many ways to the general principles of ecological restoration, but it differs in three key aspects:
1) the first actions may be initially intended for human groups that need to recover minimum living standards;
2) the SoER process would often be part of a healing process for local people;
and 3) there is a strong dependency on external economic inputs, as the people belonging to the SoES may be incapable of reorganizing themselves on their own and supporting ecosystems can no longer self-recover. Although it might not be desirable or necessary to call all restoration projects with a social component a SoER, the use of this concept may help in defining early restoration
targets that may prevent conflicts among users in the long term. From the perspective of other disciplines a
nd humanitarian institutions, SoER would be more appropriately perceived as programs of ‘social-ecological recovery’
or ‘social-ecological development’.
Domaines
Environnement et Société
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