Browsing by Author "Luuppala, Linnea"

Growing human populations and their growing appetites have caused severe environmental degradation. Ecological restoration promises an answer to environmental degradation and consequently serves as a major form of environmental management in the future. This Master’s thesis is a conceptual analysis of ecological restoration, also looking at the ethical implications that should follow from the concept. It is important to define the concept clearly to ensure that it fully responds to the causes and challenges of environmental degradation instead of simply justifying them by assuming that it is possible to restore nature without any problems. In addition, ecological restoration goes to the very heart of environmental philosophy, by challenging the dichotomy between nature and humans and therefore, offers a welcome perspective to the search of human place in the natural world. The thesis takes an analytical approach to the search for an appropriate definition of ecological restoration. Conceptual analysis is the main form of inquiry and the aim is to understand how the term has been understood and how it should be understood in a global context. This thesis looks at how ecological restoration has been defined in both philosophical and ecological literature, but the emphasis is on the philosophical literature. The analysis is confined to the most influential work covering ecological restoration, that is, of Robert Elliot (1982 and 1997), Eric Katz (1992 and 1997), Andrew Light (2000, 2012 and 2009), Eric Higgs (2003) and William Throop (2000 and 2012). Also Aldo Leopold’s (1949) work will be covered, even though he does not write about ecological restoration. The analysis is done by framing ecological restoration within four categories: goals, values, means and overall attitude. Framing ecological restoration within these categories ensures a thorough analysis of all the aspects of the concept that might otherwise remain hidden. If one of these categories is missing the concept would be lessened. The concepts of ‘nature’ and ‘wilderness’ have a major impact on how ‘ecological restoration’ is understood. The dichotomy of nature and humans distorts the debate surrounding ecological restoration. Therefore, the concept of nature needs to be defined clearly or even redefined in order to allow ecological restoration. The aim of the thesis is to resolve this conceptual conflict. Ecological restoration has the potential to re-build the relationship between nature and humans and offers the opportunity to re-evaluate the concept of nature, so that it does not necessarily exclude humans. If defined carefully, ecological restoration has the potential to restore damaged ecosystems.