Despite having increased human wellbeing in the past, intense modifications by multiple and interacting pressures have degraded ecosystems and the sustainability of their goods and services. For ecosystem restoration to deliver on multiple environmental and societal targets, the process of restoration must be redesigned to create a unified and scale-dependent approach that integrates natural and social sciences as well as the broader restoration community.
Despite having increased human wellbeing in the past, intense modifications by multiple and interacting pressures have degraded ecosystems and the sustainability of their goods and services. For ecosystem restoration to deliver on multiple environmental and societal targets, the process of restoration must be redesigned to create a unified and scale-dependent approach that integrates natural and social sciences as well as the broader restoration community.
Use, development and exploitation of water resources might seem incompatible with preservation of aquatic ecosystem biodiversity. However, researchers from The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and colleagues have developed a new framework for effective ecosystem restoration, which integrates these goals. This new framework may be essential for achieving the UN targets of restoring at least 15 % of all degraded ecosystems within 2020.
Restoration of aquatic ecosystems can improve both the delivery of ecosystem services and the ecological functioning. In two peer reviewed articles published in 2016, in cooperation with international colleagues, NIVA researchers present how this can be done.
Read more at Norwegian Institute for Water research
Photo: In the late 1990s, after a massive fermentation, restoration of Børselva was started in Ballangen municipality in Nordland. (Photo: NIVA)
