Second Congress on Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Restoration 2019

The vision of the Congress on Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Restoration (CERR) is to promote the rehabilitation and restoration of ecological processes, functions and attributes. Given the multi-facetted global changes that cause shifts and realignments in both human communities and ecosystems, there is an urgency to address pressing environmental issues such as, climate change, degraded ecosystems, desertification and the loss of biodiversity. Through direct participation CERR envisions recovering and improving ecosystem connectivity and resilience. Such ecological investments simultaneously generate many social services enhancing human well-being, equity, security and prosperity while reducing environmental risks and scarcities.

Ecosystem rehabilitation focusses on the reparation of ecosystem processes, services, and productivity. Rehabilitation may in fact be the only option in situations where significant degradation has resulted in species extinct, or where seed and soil biota have all been lost. Ecological restoration is most commonly defined as the process of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been damaged, degraded, or destroyed.  The recovery envisaged here is the re-establishment of as much as possible of the historical structure, composition, and functioning of the ecosystem that existed prior to degradation. When considering rehabilitation versus restoration, the issue of trade-offs inevitably arises with regard to the numbers and identity of species to use, the priorities for ecosystem functions and the services to be generated by passive or active interventions.

In our recent past, our ability to manage intact ecosystems sustainably, and to repair the damaged and degraded ones, is slowly gaining momentum. However, to progress beyond revegetation, improving polluted and degraded environments and biodiversity conservation much more transdisciplinary work is needed. This includes policy reforms, more investment in research and development, and heightened ecological awareness to further improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation and restoration in both ecological and socialecological terms.  Let our better, more promising future be restored.