Stretch goals and backcasting: Approaches for overcoming barriers to large-scale ecological restoration

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

The destruction and transformation of ecosystems by humans threatens biodiversity, ecosystem function, and vital ecosystem services. Ecological repair of ecosystems will be a major challenge over the next century and beyond. Restoration efforts to date have frequently been ad hoc, and site or situation specific. Although such small-scale efforts are vitally important, without large-scale visions and coordination, it is unlikely that large functioning ecosystems will ever be constructed by chance through the cumulative effects of small-scale projects. Although the problems of human-induced environmental degradation and the need for a solution are widely recognized, these issues have rarely been addressed on a sufficiently large-scale basis. There are numerous barriers that prevent large-scale ecological restoration projects from being proposed, initiated, or carried through. Common barriers include the "shifting baseline syndrome," the scale and complexity of restoration, the long-term and open-ended nature of restoration, funding challenges, and preemptive constraint of vision. Two potentially useful approaches that could help overcome these barriers are stretch goals and backcasting. Stretch goals are ambitious long-term goals used to inspire creativity and innovation to achieve outcomes that currently seem impossible. Backcasting is a technique where a desired end point is visualized, and then a pathway to that end point is worked out retrospectively. A case study from the Scottish Highlands is used to illustrate how stretch goals and backcasting could facilitate large-scale restoration. The combination of these approaches offers ways to evaluate and shape options for the future of ecosystems, rather than accepting that future ecosystems are victims of past and present political realities.

Original languageEnglish
JournalRestoration Ecology
Volume14
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)487-492
Number of pages6
ISSN1061-2971
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2006
Externally publishedYes

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Ines Lietzke-Prinz

Publications

  1. Water, rivers and wetlands
  2. Immaterial Labour and World Order: An Evaluation of a Thesis
  3. Auf allen Märkten zu Hause
  4. Sustainable software products—Towards assessment criteria for resource and energy efficiency
  5. Collective Individuation
  6. Editorial Overview
  7. Weaving Fabrics
  8. Sekem – Humanistic Management in the Egyptian Dessert
  9. “I’ll Worry About It Tomorrow” – Fostering Emotion Regulation Skills to Overcome Procrastination
  10. Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations
  11. Occurrence of the antidiabetic drug Metformin and its ultimate transformation product Guanylurea in several compartments of the aquatic cycle
  12. Plant resource-use characteristics as predictors for species contribution to community biomass in experimental grasslands
  13. Préparer Erasmus: tout un projet
  14. Contrasting temporal trends and relationships of total organic carbon, black carbon, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rural low-altitude and remote high-altitude lakes
  15. Influence of carbon nanoparticle modification on the mechanical and electrical properties of epoxy in small volumes
  16. Multisensory Design of Retail Environments
  17. Queer Theory After Marriage Equality. Edited collection in the journal "South Atlantic Quarterly"
  18. Plant–flower visitor interaction webs
  19. Ästhetik des Überblicks
  20. Angst
  21. Harmonisierung der Standards zur Klimaberichterstattung?
  22. Carbon–biodiversity relationships in a highly diverse subtropical forest
  23. Institutional Entrepreneurship
  24. Participation of Adolescents in the Development of a Smartphone App-based Intervention to Promote the Health Literacy
  25. Implementing Environmental Management Accounting in South-East Asian Companies
  26. Effects of training on employee suggestions and promotions
  27. QALD-9-plus
  28. Planning Table
  29. Ärger in der Freundschaft
  30. In situ studies of light metals with synchrotron radiation and neutrons
  31. Mathematik 1
  32. The Hidden Space of Production
  33. Konventionelle Verwaltung im Cyberspace?
  34. Biodiversity–stability relationships strengthen over time in a long-term grassland experiment
  35. Mountain cold-trapping increases transfer of persistent organic pollutants from atmosphere to cows' milk
  36. Facebook – todo un mundo a descubrir
  37. Schulentwicklung und Schulprofil
  38. Schulinspektion in Hamburg
  39. Mitarbeitergespräch
  40. Luthers Arbeit an christologischen Metaphern
  41. Nun brat’ mir doch eine(r) einen Elch!
  42. The development and function of anger in childhood and adolescence
  43. Nachhaltige Entwicklung
  44. Theodor Fontane, das Fremde und die Juden
  45. Entrepreneurial strategies for professional service firms