1. Barriers to ecological restoration in Europe: expert perspectives
- Author
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Simo Sarkki, David Moreno-Mateos, Apostolos P. Kyriazopoulos, Susan C. Baker, Judith Lorraine Fisher, Jordi Cortina-Segarra, Jan Frouz, Lynn V. Dicks, Jorge L. Ventocilla, Agata Klimkowska, Kris Decleer, Patricia María Rodríguez-González, Craig Bullock, Pilar Andrés, Ismael García‐Sánchez, Miriam Grace, Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio 'Ramón Margalef', Gestión de Ecosistemas y de la Biodiversidad (GEB), Cortina-Segarra, J [0000-0002-8231-3793], Andrés, P [0000-0002-1290-1864], Bullock, C [0000-0002-3010-1772], Decleer, K [0000-0001-9621-8925], Dicks, LV [0000-0002-8304-4468], Fisher, JL [0000-0003-1773-9832], Frouz, J [0000-0002-0908-8606], Kyriazopoulos, AP [0000-0002-5424-0857], Rodríguez-González, PM [0000-0001-8507-8429], Sarkki, S [0000-0002-7790-0600], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, and European Commission
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Delphi method ,Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 ,Library science ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Political priorities ,Regional development ,political priorities ,Political science ,media_common.cataloged_instance ,Research article ,European union ,Restoration ecology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Nature and Landscape Conservation ,media_common ,2. Zero hunger ,Ecology ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Ecología ,15. Life on land ,6. Clean water ,language.human_language ,European Union Nature Directives ,13. Climate action ,EU Restoration Plan ,language ,Delphi process ,Christian ministry ,Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 ,Portuguese ,EU restoration plan - Abstract
Ecological restoration is key to counteracting anthropogenic degradation of biodiversity and to reducing disaster risk. However, there is limited knowledge of barriers hindering the wider implementation of restoration practices, despite high-level political priority to halt the loss of biodiversity. In Europe, progress on ecological restoration has been slow and insufficient to meet international agreements and comply with European Union Nature Directives. We assessed European restoration experts' perceptions on barriers to restoration in Europe, and their relative importance, through a multiple expert consultation using a Delphi process. We found that experts share a common multi-dimensional concept of ecological restoration. Experts identified a large number of barriers (33) to the advancement of ecological restoration in Europe. Major barriers pertained to the socio-economic, not the environmental, domain. The three most important being insufficient funding, conflicting interests among different stakeholders, and low political priority given to restoration. Our results emphasize the need to increase political commitment at all levels, comply with existing nature laws, and optimize the use of financial resources by increasing funds for ecological restoration and eradicate environmentally harmful subsidies. The experts also call for the integration of ecological restoration into land-use planning and facilitating stakeholders' collaboration. Our study identifies key barriers, discusses ways to overcome the main barriers to ER in Europe, and contributes knowledge to support the implementation of the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the EU 2030 Restoration Plan in particular. © 2021 The Authors. Restoration Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of Society for Ecological Restoration. We are particularly thankful to experts participating in the Delphi process for their generosity in sharing their time and knowledge, and the European Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SERE), Réseau d'Échanges et de Valorisation en Écologie de la Restauration (REVER), Finnish Board on Ecological Restoration (FBER), Working Group on Ecological Restoration of the Spanish Association for Terrestrial Ecology (ER-AEET), Dutch Knowledge Network for Restoration and Management of Nature (OBN), German Restoration Network (GRN), UK Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), Portuguese Network of Ecological Restoration (RPRE), Iberian Center for River Restoration (CIREF), and European Federation of Soil Bioengineering (EFIB) for suggesting candidates to the consulting process. We appreciate the support given by BiodivERsA (project funded under the EU Horizon 2020 ERA-NET COFUND scheme), and the EKLIPSE project (European Union Horizon 2020 grant agreement 690474), and particularly by Juliette C. Young. JCS research is financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Education and Universities and European Regional Development Funds (FEDER; project COSTERA, RTI2018-095954-B-I00). PMRG research is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through FCT Investigator Program grant number IF/00059/2015, and Centro de Estudos Florestais is supported by FCT grants UID/AGR/00239/2019 and UIDB/00239/2020.
- Published
- 2021
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