Land restoration, which may include renaturalisation orrewilding, is the process ofrestoring land to a different or previous state with an intended purpose. That purpose can be a variety of things such as what follows: being safe for humans, plants, and animals; stabilizing ecological communities; cleaning up pollution; creating novel ecosystems;[1] or restoring the land to a historical condition, for example howindigenous people managed the land.[2]
Ecological destruction ordegradation, to which land restoration serves as an antidote, is usually the consequence of human influence's intended or unintended consequences. This can includepollution,deforestation,salination, orspecies endangerment, among many more. Land restoration is not the same asland reclamation, where existingecosystems are altered or destroyed to give way for cultivation or construction. Land restoration can enhance the supply of valuableecosystem services that benefit people.
In order to increase the chances for successful landscape restoration, several key parameters need to be determined. A shared understanding of the definition of restoration should be defined for the project. As there can be many different motivations for landscape restoration – influenced by personal or environmental ethics, opinions, priorities, available data, economics, etc. – the definition of the term can mean different things to different people and has changed over time.[3] Additionally, in order to monitor the success of a restoration project, areference model orreference ecosystem should be selected in order to make comparisons. Along with this, proper surveys of existing conditions should take place. Furthermore, design considerations like restoration methods, contingency plans, monitoring, maintenance, permits, resources, budget, and timeline need to be known and will influence landscape restoration capabilities.[3]
Adaptive management is "an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources."[4] It is the primary method used in managing land restoration projects, as natural resources can respond to management interventions; however, the durability and desirability of these responses are uncertain and depend on a combination of controllable and uncontrollable factors.[4] Therefore, adapting how a project is managed based on responses from the ecosystem is a more informed approach to landscape restoration.
Traditional ecological knowledge has had increase significance and usage in landscape restoration spheres.[5] Using traditional ecological knowledge alongsideWestern ecological knowledge is becoming the more mainstream approach to landscape restoration, as many landscapes have evolved alongside humans over thousands of years, and because often times the ideal landscape used as thereference ecosystem is the pre-colonial ecological landscape.[6]
Land reclamation in deserts involves
Stabilizing and fixating the soil is usually done in several phases.
The first phase is fixating the soil to such extent that dune movement is ceased. This is done by grasses, and plants providing wind protection such asshelterbelts,windbreaks andwoodlots. Shelterbelts are wind protections composed of rows of trees, arranged perpendicular to the prevailing wind, while woodlots are more extensive areas of woodland.[7]
The second phase involves improving/enriching the soil by planting nitrogen-fixating plants and using the soil immediately to grow crops.Nitrogen fixating plants used includeclover, yellow mustard, beans, etc., and food crops includewheat,barley,beans,peas,sweet potatoes,date,olives,limes,figs,apricot,guava,tomato, certainherbs, etc. Regardless of the cover crop used, the crops (not including any trees) are each year harvested and/or plowed into the soil (e.g. with clover). In addition, each year the plots are used for another type of crop (known ascrop rotation) to prevent depleting the soil on specific trace elements.
A recent development is theSeawater Greenhouse and Seawater Forest. This proposal is to construct these devices on coastal deserts in order to create fresh water and grow food.[8] A similar approach is the Desert Rose concept.[9] These approaches are of widespread applicability, since the relative costs of pumping large quantities of seawater inland are low.[10]
Another related concept is ADRECS[clarification needed] – a proposed system for rapidly delivering soil stabilisation and re-forestation techniques coupled with renewable energy generation.[11]
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The Bonn Challenge is a global aspiration to restore 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded lands by 2020
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