ABSTRACT
The Science & Policy Working Group of the Society for Ecological Restoration International defi nes restoration as “the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.”1 This defi nition seems to carry certain implicit assumptions which merit examination. We know, for example, that industrial humanity has the power to “degrade, damage, or destroy” ecosystems; but does this imply a complementary power to “assist their recovery”? Can the same scientifi c knowledge that is used to convert ecosystems into “raw materials” for industrial processes also be used to reestablish wild nature; or does the latter task also require a different type of knowledge? And what do we understand by “recovery”? Furthermore, what qualities are required of the restorer, coming as we do from an industrialist context that has often proved destructive to wild nature; and what are our motives in attempting to restore ecosystems? In this chapter, I will explore some of these seldom addressed questions.
