ABSTRACT
We are endowed with a great repository of natural capital (biotic and abiotic) in our ecosystem. Keeping in view the significance of our natural heritage (natural capital) and its services (ecosystem services) enjoyed by the human population, restoration becomes the need of the hour to maintain sustainability in our ecosystem (whether terrestrial or aquatic). Over the past few decades, the population explosion has exerted dense pressure on the repository, leading to its degradation, destruction and damage. To restore (rejuvenation, revegetation and revamping) the 3D ecosystem (damaged, destroyed and degraded) back to its original or unimpaired state is referred to as ecosystem restoration. This restoration includes restoring soil, forest, land, water, etc. Moreover, it also includes healing of the deteriorating conditions of the ecosystem caused by climate change. On the whole, we can say that anthropogenic activities are responsible in one way or another for destruction and damage in all the ecosystem services. For restoration, three basic steps, i.e. planning, execution and surveillance (implementation), are required, and these should go hand in hand. For long-term and large-scale restoration and better results in achieving set goals, advanced techniques should be adopted for the sustainability of biodiversity and human well-being. So, policy reforms, extended investment in research and development, and vast ecological awareness are the prominent requirements to further improve the effectiveness of restoration in both ecological and socio-ecological terms. This chapter highlights various ecosystem services and provides a framework for their restoration by replacing 3D (damaged, destroyed and degraded) ecosystems with 3R (rejuvenated, revegetated and revamped) ecosystems, so that what we received from our forefathers, we can pass on to the next generation.
