Building “Restoration Futures”: From Ecological Repair to Creative Transformations

Speaker: Harry W. Fischer

Restoration has become a key environmental agenda of the present era, exemplified by the UN’s current Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30) and pursued through a host of policies worldwide. But what does it mean to “restore” a landscape? Existing paradigms of thought understand restoration as a process of ecological recovery, yet provide only limited guidance on the ends toward which restoration should be pursued. In this talk, I develop the notion of “restoration futures”, which frames restoration as a contested and value-driven process of building more sustainable and thriving landscapes. I discuss some of my existing research on why large-scale target-driven restoration often fails, and why more empowered local governance can encourage success. I then present an emerging framework for studying restoration futures, followed by preliminary findings from a large comparative analysis of restoration values and aspirations drawn from cases in 20 countries globally. A futures lens makes explicit diverse aspirations and value conflicts, with potential to support more creative and democratic decision-making on restoration goals: what we wish to recover from the past, what aspects of the past we may seek to undo, what we strive to keep from the present, what futures we hope to avoid, and what we aspire to achieve. Toward which futures should we restore?

Harry Fischer is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor (Docent) in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Originally trained as a human geographer, he has held positions in the United States, India, and Australia. His current work looks at local natural resource governance, climate vulnerability and adaptation, and the social dimensions of forest and landscape restoration.