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journal article Open Access May 06, 2021

Equity in ecosystem restoration

Harry B. M. Wells ORCID Elijah H. Kirobi Cadia L. Chen Leigh A. Winowiecki Tor‐Gunnar Vågen ORCID Muhammad N. Ahmad Lindsay C. Stringer ORCID Andrew J. Dougill ORCID
Restoration Ecology Vol. 29 No. 5 · Wiley
View at Publisher Save 10.1111/rec.13385
Abstract
The importance of equity has been emphasized in climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and ecosystem restoration. However, equity implications are rarely considered explicitly in restoration projects. Although the role of equity has been studied in the context of biodiversity conservation and environmental governance, environmental variables are often ignored in equity studies, and spatial analyses of equity are lacking. To address these gaps, we use a mixed methods approach, integrating spatially explicit ecological and social data to evaluate, through an equity lens, a restoration project in a semi‐arid rangeland socioecological system in Kenya. We use questionnaires and semi‐structured key informant interviews to explore four dimensions of equity: distributional, procedural, recognitional, and contextual. Our results show that restoration employment and distance to the restoration site strongly influence perceived distributional and procedural equity. Employment and distance to restoration site can interact in counterintuitive ways in their influence on aspects of perceived equity, in this case, the fairness of site selection. Our findings exemplify that equity dimensions are intimately linked, and trade‐offs can occur between equity dimensions, across socio‐temporal scales, and in choosing the ethical framework to apply. Our work demonstrates how restoration is influenced by different dimensions of equity and we opine that incorporating equity in project planning and implementation processes can improve restoration outcomes. We emphasize the importance of respecting plurality in the values systems and ethical frameworks that underlie what is considered equitable, while negotiating trade‐offs between diverse ethical positions in the design and implementation of ecosystem restoration projects.
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Evaluating Ecological Restoration Success: A Review of the Literature

Liana Wortley, Jean‐Marc Hero, Michael Howes

Restoration Ecology 10.1111/rec.12028
Metrics
50
Citations
48
References
Details
Published
May 06, 2021
Vol/Issue
29(5)
License
View
Authors
H
Harry B. M. Wells

Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT U.K.; Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme PO Box 26 Nanyuki Kenya

E
Elijah H. Kirobi

School of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Studies Kenyatta University Nairobi PO Box 43844 Kenya

C
Cadia L. Chen

Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme PO Box 26 Nanyuki Kenya

L
Leigh A. Winowiecki

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Nairobi PO Box 30677 Kenya

T
Tor‐Gunnar Vågen

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Nairobi PO Box 30677 Kenya

M
Muhammad N. Ahmad

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Nairobi PO Box 30677 Kenya

L
Lindsay C. Stringer

Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT U.K.; Department of Environment and Geography University of York York YO10 5NG U.K.

A
Andrew J. Dougill

Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT U.K.

Cite This Article
Harry B. M. Wells, Elijah H. Kirobi, Cadia L. Chen, et al. (2021). Equity in ecosystem restoration. Restoration Ecology, 29(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13385
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