Introduction
According to Hobbs and Norton (1996) the restoration of an ecosystem id directly related to the ethics. The pre-damaged conditions of an ecosystem are mainly due to the improper behavior of people towards environment.
Elizabeth (2005) stated that the ecological restoration is becoming a major strategy for human beings to interact with environment. Some people believe that the restoration is a land management technique as the conservation and preservation. The other group of thoughts view restoration as a method which modifies the misdeeds and ill behavior conducted towards ecology in the past. Values that help in the attribution towards restoration and received from it are evaluated by the people. The potential problems which include the ecological, social, natural and economical with the product and implementation strategy of restoration are measured.
The involvement of people in restoration program is examined, focusing on the different impacts caused by volunteers and paid workers have on the value of the practice and outcome of the product is measured.
Restoration ecology is a way of restoration of damaged ecosystems especially the restoration of those ecosystems which have been disturbed by human activities. Such projects can range from small-scale to very large scale restorations. The small scale projects include the urban park reclamations, such as the restoration works going on in Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City. While the large scale restoration projects include the large area restorations, for example huge wetland mitigation projects as in the Florida Everglades.
Restoration ecology has become a major environmental priority for the ecologists, in terms of number of voluntary person-hours devoted to it and financial benefits committed to it by public and private sponsors. An example of “Chicago Wilderness,” shows the cluster of restorations coordinated by the regional network. Stevens (1995) and Gobster & Hull (2000) stated that this restoration process attracted thousands of volunteers to help in restoration over 17,000 acres of native Oak Savannah. In the final part of the plan for the Chicago Wilderness program the upwards restoration of 100,000 acres will be done. In the same City of an estimated $30 million are spent to restoring selected wetlands within the industrial brownfield region at Lake Calumet on the city’s south side.
The restoration of land is being categorized as the applied ethics as it practically involves people for the struggle of process other than the theoretical words.
Behaviors of man towards land restoration projects
A research conducted by Cara Marie (2013) shows that the volunteers in a community based restoration project carried out in United States had good interest in the restoration of land. The emotions, flanked by values, motivations and goals of the project, lead to involvement in environmental initiatives by the local inhabitants.
The emotions mostly play a double part as both the outcome of appraising an event and to inspect whether one has achieved or not achieved a desired state of the project. It also helps as motivators to work toward getting goals. There are two main categories of emotions expressed by PNP participants (Cara Marie, 2013).
- Those emotions which are expressed in response to or as a motivation for the achievement of desired nature-based objectives. These are of pleasure, satisfaction and happiness.
- On the second hand those emotions that are expressed in response to avoiding an undesired outcome or as a motivation to avoid goal impairment. These involve sadness, dissatisfaction and depression.
Behaviors to protect nature are not based solely on cognitive decisions, but they also motivate a wide variety of emotions including self-blame, indignation, and affinity to nature.
Negative role of Human effecting natural habitat
There are a number of factors which affect the natural habitats. These include the following main anthropogenic activities;
- Deforestation
As the population rate is increasing more space is required for the habitat therefore deforestation and the natural world is damaged. In 2000, South Asia was a home to 5 out of 19 Mega cities in the world with the total population of 65.8 Million. Most of the population in South Asia belongs to Rural as the major source of income is agriculture. With rapid urbanization the population density is increasing in certain areas.
Pollution
On other major human factor is the pollution caused from various sources. This can be in form of air pollution including smoke from industries, fumes or gases or the global environmental warming. Water pollution can cause the soil erosion and soil contamination that can degrade the land and plant growth.
Restoration objectives
There are a number of objectives which the restoration ecologies seek for any site. These may include;
- Restoration of disturbed land due to natural disasters.
Components of ecological restoration
There are mainly four components of ecological restoration. These include;
- Cultural
The Native Americans played an important role in history of the restoration of many ecosystems through their friendly interactions with the natural world. Native Americans also used fire as a tool for hunting. The fire promoted many specific plant species which differs from lightning fires in seasonality, frequency, as well as intensity of growth.
Because a lot of times when the ecologists look at environmental problems today, a common response for an answer to the problems is to take humans out of the ecosystems. The ecological restoration is never so simple. The ecosystems today have been evolved along with humans so basically the presence of humans is not the basic problem it’s the gravity of their influence.
- Economical
The restoration economics includes the project cost to plan, implement, and monitor the restoration process over a large period of time. It includes the analysis of economic benefits from restoration either on the short term or for the long term.
Economic benefits can also include a wide variety of things for restoration from increase in the habitat of wildlife or increase in the quality of water, reduction of fire hazard, or the jobs creation.
- Social
The restoration is an outcome of very complicated interactions between nature and society. It has divergent social and political views within society. There is a need to develop common ground among all participants when identifying and properly planning restoration projects. The human nature is to disturb the natural environment to get the resources and consume them.
The restoration projects are often carried out on large in scale especially on places where more people have an interest. It is important to develop a common ground among all participants when identifying and planning restoration project goals.
An example of this component along with the other three components is seen very clearly when the ecological incorporation on large scale restoration project was carried out in “Ponderosa Pine Forests” which stand in San Juan Mountains over near to Dolores. In this area a group was made named as “The Ponderosa Pine Forest Partnership”. The main focus of this group was on the major issues surrounding Ponderosa Pine Restoration site. People from different backgrounds like scientists, ranchers, foresters, environmentalists, governmental officials, and common citizens were brought together to discuss how they envisioned this project.
- Ecological
There is a need to identify the ecological restoration goal for a specific site, to identify the restoration potential of a site, to estimate how to conduct the restoration process in the specific, and most importantly to calculate the success of restoration.
There is also a need to identify a spatial and temporal context for ecological restoration. For any restoration project that is going to be undertake, there is a need to identify of
- Defining the goal of ecological restoration,
- The potential of the site for restoration,
- And how the success of restoration can be evaluated.
- And the most important factor is the estimation of the long term benefits it will provide to the citizen after restoration.
It must be noted that every ponderosa pine forest is not the same so there are different requirements and there should be different processes. Therefore the elevation of the forest, the slope of the forest and other variables need to be considered before developing plan.
When designing restoration goals there is a need to determine the time period of the system. To incorporate the climatic and biological changes that have occurred since the period of disturbance that is being tried to restore and also the changes that will occur over time with restoration. All these ecological questions can be answered by developing the relevant conditions for the areas which needs restoration.
External pressures to a restoration site
There can be a number of external pressures to a conservation site which can be calculated by visiting the site before restoration process starts. Some of the common external pressures include;
- Pressure from citizens
There can be a lot of pressure from the local community as the land is in most of the cases forbidden to use for common use. The people may not get agree to sacrifice the land for long term benefits, instead of the other short term benefits the land is providing at that time. Secondly, in many cases it is not easy to define what the exact time for the restoration of land.
- Economic issues
It is very difficult to estimate the exact cost of any restoration process of a land because you have to provide with a lot of input in most of the cases both of man power and economics. The land restoration is a long term process. With the change in governmental and policies there can be financial issues that the new government may not consider it as important. Secondly the costs of materials and products increase with time.
- Pressure from native animals and plants
There is always a risk from the local animals and plants. The insects, animals and plants can grow easily at the site that can interfere with the growth of other plants. The living organisms can have a host organism relationship.
The relationship of Normative Ecology with restoration
The question that “Can ecological restorations be a cause of ethical relationships with the Natural environment?” is still tough for the ecologists. According to Miles (2000) it seems entirely plausible if not unassailable that they can build a healthier and positive relationship. A research of Miles (2000) shows that 306 Volunteers in Chicago Wilderness projects showed a large level of satisfaction for restoration of land. She termed it as “Meaningful Action,” and “Fascination with Nature”.
The “Meaningful Action” was gauged, for example, in the sense in which restorationists felt that they were “making life better for coming generations,” or “feeling that they were doing the right thing.” “Fascination with Nature,” was correlated with reports by volunteers that restoration helped them to “learn how nature works” Miles (2000). The Participation in restorations can give volunteers a strong sense of connection with the natural processes around them and a larger appreciation of environmental problems in other parts of the world.
Incentives for restoration of forests
Sayer et al. (2004) stated that the restoration of degraded land is a technical problem. The restoration of tree cover in the “Imperata grasslands” Indonesia showed that the local people were perfectly capable of solving these problems for the right incentives provided. The local people consider the degraded land of forest as an important resource. These people are provided b y a number of useful products by the grasslands.
Tomich et al., (1997) stated that if trees are planted on the degraded land then the local people may lose accessibility to it as it will than fall under the control of the forest department or industrial timber companies.
The monoculture plantation may not be suitable to meet the requirements of exotic species and the diverse product needs of the local community. Therefore this technique of restoration may not be suitable for many land restoration processes.
Ramakrishnan et al., (1994) stated that the Local participation and their consultation for the projects of restoration and their allocation of expected physical gains are essential to ensure local interest in the success of the project. In the recent restoration projects the plantations has become increasingly important as suppliers of fiber. In a vast expansion of large scale industrial plantations as in case of tropics and in some cases probably on degraded land that used to be forested. Engaging the companies in discussion of the potential economic costs and benefits of different strategies for the designing and management of the areas which are distinguished from normal production of plantation will be essential.
Economic value of restoring a land
Pearce (2006) stated that the economic analysis of the value of the environmental deals specifically with the benefits humans derive from restoration of land. According to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2003) within this framework, ecosystem services are defined as the flow of benefits people obtain from restoration of degraded lands. The different values that are obtained from ecosystem services stemming from restoration of a land can be categorized as;
- Direct use values
- Indirect use values
- Optional values
Indirect use values
The “Indirect use value” is derived from the role ecosystems services which play in supporting the function of ecosystems indirectly.
Direct use values
The flow of direct use benefits includes;
- The purification of air and water from trees and plants,
- Maintenance of biodiversity and species,
- And nutrient cycling.
Option value
McConnell and Walls (2005); Steenstra 2008; Ma and Swinton (2011) stated that it accounts for the potential future benefits received from the environment. The optional value includes existence value, which is derived from knowing that something exists, and bequest value, which comes from leaving something for future generations.
Types of land restoration
The land restoration can be of different types depending upon the requirement of community for the land. It includes;
Full restoration
In this type whole area is forbidden for local community for use. The restoration activities and the project members are allowed to visit or make any activity in that area. This type of project can be carried out in the community where least involvement of locals is present and that land is of no longer use for the public.
Minimal thinning
In this type of restoration minimal thinning of trees is allowed to the local people. The restrictions are lower as compared to the full restoration.
Burn only
In this type the restoration is done only by the fire. This is very common type of restoration in canopy forests.
Conclusion
The restoration of land and ecosystems are in direct relation with the ethics. There is a strong influence of people on the restoration projects. The involvement of people and local community is very important. There are some direct and indirect values. The benefits of restoration involve the provision of resources to the local people. However there are some external pressures to the restoration sites from ethical point of view.
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