From Prairie to Planet: Global Processes and Ecological Restoration

Abstract

Ecological restoration has come to play an important role in discussions of the environment in the USA over the past decade. Yet there is still no generally accepted definition of the term "ecological restoration. " Although the idea of restoration in the strict sense originated in the Midwest of the USA, restoration has recently caught on in countries outside North America, many of which offer very different ecological, economic, and cultural conditions. In this paper it is (1) illustrated that there exist different practices under the label of ecological restoration in different areas of the world, and (2) it is suggested how these differences can be understood within the framework of world system theory.