Beyond despair: Leveraging ecosystem restoration for psychosocial resilience
Abstract
Ecosystem restoration has historically been viewed as an ecological endeavor, but restoration possesses significant, yet largely untapped, potential as a catalyst for personal and social transformation. We highlight the opportunity for restoration to enhance community resilience by increasing agency and collective action and countering the pervasive perception that we are powerless witnesses to environmental decline. In this perspective, we take a “bright spots” approach and highlight successful examples of ecosystem restoration that have helped to nurture a sense of place, foster optimism, and cultivate stronger and more diverse social networks. These three individual- and community-level capacities have the potential to lead to increased psychosocial resilience, which is a key component of community resilience. Our aim is to spark discussion and research to better understand how we can transform restoration from a largely technical endeavor to a practice and process through which human–nature relationships are infused with deliberate meaning and human well-being is improved. With current calls to upscale and technologize restoration to meet sustainable development goals, we cannot lose sight of the value of community-engaged ecosystem restoration as a strategy with great potential for psychosocial benefits.
Article Details
Journal Info
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Authors (15)
Carter S. Smith
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Elizabeth A. DeMattia
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Elizabeth Albright
Division of Environmental Social Systems, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Abigail F. Bromberger
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Olivia G. Hayward
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
India J. Mackinson
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Sydney A. Mantell
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Brian G. McAdoo
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Dominic McAfee
School of Biological Sciences and Environment Institute, University of Adelaide
Aurora McCollum
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Avery B. Paxton
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Anne Roderer
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Kathryn Stevenson
Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University
Rebecca L. Vidra
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab
Zixin Zhao
Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab