The Economics of Ecological Restoration

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Humans have always had a negative impact on the environment. The dependency on the environment has caused us to exploit it as natural resources. These resources are put in to product essential and non-essential goods for the human population. Many of these resources such as timber and fish stocks, are limited by time and can result to resource depletion (Field, 2008). The United Natios Millennium Ecosystem Assessment states that approximately 60% of the world’s ecosystems are uses at an unsustainable rate (David Suzuki Foundation, 2008). Restoration efforts and an adaptive sustainable (a balanced of environmental, social, and economical values) approach may allow for these resources to be replenished over time and be uses at a sustainable rate. The rate of replenished can also be called the rate of recovery in terms of ecosystem health and integrity. The practise of initiating or accelerating the recovery of an ecosystem is commonly referred to restoration ecology (Sager, 2012). The benefits of restoring degraded lands are the services that have been lost from resource extractions, these ecosystem services provide importance processes that are unrestricted to expenses, and are low maintenance (David Suzuki Foundation, 2008). The primary discussion of this report will be on the economic aspect relatively to ecosystem services of ecological restoration, the social, political, and technological aspects of ecological restoration will also be looked at will be discussed.

Economic Aspect

The complexity of nature has made it difficult to put a price on it and the services it provides. Many environmental groups have put a price on ecosystem services in order provide socioeconomic aspect to many political discussions. This has been u...

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