Why Ecological Restoration Isn't Just About the Environment - by Jordan Engel

I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the principles of ecological restoration and how restoration projects fit into a human framework. For folks who work professionally in the field of ecological restoration, local people are as much of a concern in projects as the ecosystems themselves. This is because they acknowledge the interconnected relationship of the natural and human worlds.  All humans, whether we realize it or not, are a part of the biosphere – the natural world – as we receive our sustenance from it and interact with the natural systems (often destructively). In a recent report by the UN Environmental Program, the world’s leading scientists have at last recognized the cyclical relationship that cultures and nature share, documenting that, “Cultural change, such as loss of cultural and spiritual values, languages, and traditional knowledge and practices, is a driver that can cause increasing pressures on biodiversity…In turn, these pressures impact human well-being.” In light of this, effective restoration projects are ones that:

1. Engage local communities and stakeholders.
2. Address the need for early economic returns to the local communities.
3. Value the input of local and indigenous knowledge.  

The forest's ability to retain moisture
is clearly visible here. Because water
is life, another advantage of the forest
is supporting human life. The rate of
population loss in Central Appalachia
is one of the highest in the country, in
part because of the detrimental health
effects of living there. 

In a sense, ecological restoration goes beyond the environment. It is bio-cultural restoration – the process of assisting the recovery of the world’s natural and cultural systems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. We’ve recently witnessed bio-cultural restoration taking place in Eastern Kentucky with the work of Dr. Tammy Horn from Coal Country Beeworks. Tammy comes from the mountains herself, having been born in Harlan County, and confessed to us that much of her inspiration came from her grandfather who kept bees while she was growing up. It was the traditional knowledge of mountain beekeeping that both informed Tammy’s work and is what she is attempting to restore. Traditional communities, like those of the Southern mountains, tend to have a much greater knowledge of their environment – an awareness that is crucial for sustainable living – while modern communities tend to ignore their relationship with the Earth. In fact, it is that perceived severance of people and the environment by this culture that has led to much of the destruction of biodiversity and has created the need for ecological restoration.

Tammy Horn in one of her bee yards.

Tammy also realizes the need for local economic benefits along with ecological restoration. Commercial beeswax cosmetics in this country predominately use imported bee products because of the pesticides and other toxic chemicals that make their way into the hives. Ultimately, Coal Country Beeworks envisions a Central Appalachian “bee corridor.” These bees, because of their isolation from industrial agriculture, have cleaner wax than is found throughout most of the country and could soon support a host of sustainable jobs in the region. Other contributions to the local economy from the bee corridor are raw honey and the pollinating services of the bees.

Supporting the revival of traditional cultures, as Tammy is doing, is so crucial to ecological restoration because of the biological and cultural extinction crises that are currently affecting the Earth. Ethnobotanist Luisa Maffi calls it a “global epidemic of sameness,” that lately is erasing a human language every two weeks and a species every few minutes, many of which are unrecorded before they vanish from the Earth. It is our role as restorers to not only stop the destruction of biological and cultural diversity, but reverse it. Taking from the lessons of ecological restoration, it is apparent that we need to look to traditional communities for the answers and support them as we repair the Earth.

The Appalachian coal fields in 1984, when mining employees
in Kentucky numbered about 35,000. 

The Appalachian coal fields in 2012. While surface mining has
taken over much of the landscape, Kentucky mining
employment is down to about 15,000. The ecological and
economic situation in the region is worsening and the need
for restoration has never been greater.