Book Description Review Quotes Contents
Book Description

How can environmental degradation be stopped? How can it be reversed? And how can the damage already done be repaired? The authors of this volume argue that a two-pronged approach is needed: reducing demand for ecosystem goods and services and better management of them, coupled with an increase in supply through environmental restoration.

Restoring Natural Capital brings together economists and ecologists, theoreticians, practitioners, policy makers, and scientists from the developed and developing worlds to consider the costs and benefits of repairing ecosystem goods and services in natural and socioecological systems. It examines the business and practice of restoring natural capital, and seeks to establish common ground between economists and ecologists with respect to the restoration of degraded ecosystems and landscapes and the still broader task of restoring natural capital. The book focuses on developing strategies that can achieve the best outcomes in the shortest amount of time as it:

• considers conceptual and theoretical issues from both an economic
and ecological perspective
• examines specific strategies to foster the restoration of natural
capital and offers a synthesis and a vision of the way forward

Nineteen case studies from around the world illustrate challenges and achievements in setting targets, refining approaches to finding and implementing restoration projects, and using restoration of natural capital as an economic opportunity. Throughout, contributors make the case that the restoration of natural capital requires close collaboration among scientists from across disciplines as well as local people, and when successfully executed represents a practical, realistic, and essential tool for achieving lasting sustainable development.

Review Quotes

"The editors contend that 'ecological restoration must be practiced as if people matter' ... Summing Up: Recommended."
Choice

"This book reviews related theoretical issues, case studies from around the world and specific strategies to increase the restoration of natural capital."
Wildlife Activist

"In a time when humanity is in ecological overshoot, steady-state economics is no longer sufficient. Moving beyond a state of overshoot, however, requires that we learn how to restore natural capital. Hence I warmly welcome this volume. It provides not only road maps and tools, but also a pragmatic approach: rather than merely lamenting about the state of the biosphere, it shows that we can, and need to, make a difference."
Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director, Global Footprint Network

"Economic logic says we should invest in the limiting factor. In yesterday's empty world that meant investing in human-made capital; in today's full world it means investing in natural capital. Fallowing is the traditional way to invest in natural capital. To discover modern analogs to fallowing, read this important book."
Herman E. Daly, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

"This book is our first road map beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. It teaches us how to repair our wounded planet, ensuring that nature's services vital to human and ecosystem survival are restored before we reach critical thresholds. The authors weave a closely intertwined series of arguments and cases to show how economic values can only be maintained if we protect and restore the natural environment."
Peter H. May , President-elect, International Society for Ecological Economics

"The book should be of interest to all those who are concerned with not merely understanding the intellectual challenges of ecological restoration, but also with how to implement it in the field. Ecologists sensing they might need a new set of perspectives and tools to do this will find this an instructive and useful book."
Ecological Restoration

Contents

Foreword \ Peter Raven
Preface \ James Aronson, Suzanne J. Milton and James N. Blignaut
 
PART I. Restoring Natural Capital: The Conceptual Landscape
Introduction \ James N. Blignaut, James Aronson, and Suzanne J. Milton
Chapter 1. Restoring Natural Capital: Definition and Rationale \ James Aronson, Suzanne J. Milton and James N. Blignaut
Chapter 2. Restoring Natural Capital: A Reflection on Ethics \ James N. Blignaut, James Aronson, Paddy Woodworth, Sean Archer, Narayan Desai, and Andre F. Clewell
Chapter 3. Restoring Natural Capital: An Ecological Economics Assessment \ Joshua Farley and Erica J. Brown Gaddis
Chapter 4. Restoring Natural Capital: A Mainstream Economic Perspective \ Eugenio Figueroa
Chapter 5. Assessing and Restoring Natural Capital Across Scales: Lessons from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment \ Richard Norgaard, Phoebe Barnard, and Patrick Lavelle
Chapter 6. Assessing the Loss in Natural Capital: A Biodiversity Intactness Index \ Reinette Biggs and Robert J. Scholes
 
PART II. Restoring Natural Capital: Experiences and Lessons
Introduction \ Suzanne J. Milton, James Aronson, and James N. Blignaut

Targets
Chapter 7. Setting Appropriate Restoration Targets for Changed Ecosystems in the Semiarid Karoo, South Africa \ W. Richard J. Dean and Chris J. Roche
Chapter 8. Targeting Sustainable Options for Restoring Natural Capital in Madagascar \ Louise Holloway
Chapter 9. Landscape Function as a Target for Restoring Natural Capital in Semiarid Australia \ David Tongway and John Ludwig
Chapter 10. Genetic Integrity as a Target for Natural Capital Restoration:Weighing the Costs and Benefits \ Cathy Waters, Andrew G. Young, and Jim Crosthwaite

Approaches
Chapter 11. Restoring and Maintaining Natural Capital in the Pacific Northwest, USA \ Andrew Carey
Chapter 12. Restoring and Maintaining Natural Capital Reconnects People to Their Natural Heritage: Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand \ John Craig and Éva-Terézia Vesely
Chapter 13. Restoring Forage Grass to Support the Pastoral Economy of Arid Patagonia \ Martin R. Aguiar and Marcela E. Román
Chapter 14. A Community Approach to Restore Natural Capital: The Wildwood Project \ Scotland William McGhee
Chapter 15. An Adaptive Comanagement Approach to Restoring Natural Capital in Communal Areas of South Africa \ Christo Fabricius and Georgina Cundill
Chapter 16. Participatory Use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Restoring Natural Capital in Agroecosystems of Rural India \ P. S. Ramakrishnan
Chapter 17. Overcoming Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital: Large-scale Restoration on the Sacramento River \ Suzanne M. Langridge, Mark Buckley, and Karen D. Holl
Chapter 18. An Approach to Quantify the Economic Value of Restoring Natural Capital: A Case from South Africa \ James N. Blignaut and Christina E. Loxton
 
Economic Opportunities: Case Studies
Chapter 19. Capturing the Economic Benefits from Restoring Natural Capital in Transformed Tropical Forests \ Kirsten Schuyt, Stephanie Mansourian, Gabriella Roscher, and Gerard Rambeloarisoa
Chapter 20. Restoring Natural Forests to Make Medicinal Bark Harvesting Sustainable in South Africa \ Coert J. Geldenhuys
Chapter 21. Assessing Costs, Benefits, and Feasibility of Restoring Natural Capital in Subtropical Thicket in South Africa \ Anthony J. Mills, Jane K. Turpie, Richard M. Cowling, Christo Marais, Graham I. H. Kerley, Richard G. Lechmere-Oertel, Ayanda M. Sigwela, and Mike Powell
Chapter 22. Costs and Benefits of Restoring Natural Capital Following Alien Plant Invasions in Fynbos Ecosystems in South Africa \ Patricia M. Holmes, David M. Richardson, and Christo Marais
Chapter 23. Return of Natural, Social, and Financial Capital to the Hole Left by Mining \ J. Deon van Eeden, Roy A. Lubke, and Pippa Haarhoff
Chapter 24. Protecting and Restoring Natural Capital in New York City's Watersheds to Safeguard Water \ Christopher Elliman and Nathan Berry
Chapter 25. Making the Restoration of Natural Capital Profitable on Private Land: Koa Forestry on Hawaii Island \ Liba Pejchar, Joshua H. Goldstein, and Gretchen C. Daily

PART III. Restoring Natural Capital: Tactics and Strategies
Introduction \ James Aronson, Suzanne J. Milton and James N. Blignaut
 
Valuation
Chapter 26. Valuing Natural Capital and the Costs and Benefits of Restoration \ William E. Rees, Joshua Farley, Éva-Terézia Vesely, and Rudolf de Groot
Chapter 27. A Decision Analysis Framework for Proposal Evaluation of Natural Capital Restoration \ Mike D. Young, Stefan Hajkowicz, Erica J. Brown Gaddis, and Rudolf de Groot
 
Local and Landscape Levels
Chapter 28. Overcoming Physical and Biological Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital \ Karen D. Holl, Liba Pejchar, and Steve G. Whisenant
Chapter 29. Overcoming Socioeconomic Obstacles to Restoring Natural Capital \ Christo Marais, Paddy Woodworth, Martin de Wit, John Craig, Karen D. Holl, and Jennifer Gouza
 
Global Level
Chapter 30. Overcoming Obstacles at a Global Scale to Restore Natural Capital \ Robert J. Scholes, Reinette Biggs, Erica J. Brown Gaddis, and Karen D. Holl
Chapter 31. Managing Our Global Footprint Through the Restoration of Natural Capital at a Global Scale \ Joshua Farley, Erica J. Brown Gaddis, William E. Rees, and Katrina Van Dis
 
Policies and Institutions
Chapter 32. Making Restoration Work: Financial Mechanisms \ Rudolf de Groot, Martin de Wit, Erica J. Brown Gaddis, Carolyn Kousky, William McGhee, and Mike D. Young
Chapter 33. Making Restoration Work: Nonmonetary Mechanisms \ William McGhee, John Craig, Rudolf de Groot, James S. Miller, and Keith Bowers
 
PART IV. Synthesis
Chapter 34. Mainstreaming the Restoration of Natural Capital: A Conceptual and Operational Framework \ Richard M. Cowling, Shirley M. Pierce, and Ayanda M. Sigwela
Chapter 35. Restoring Natural Capital Toward a Better Future \ Suzanne J. Milton, James Aronson, and James N. Blignaut
 
Glossary
References
Editors and Contributors
Index