Ecosystem Restoration: A Public Health Intervention

Ecosystem restoration is integral to humanity's recovery from COVID-19

COVID-19 has devastated global communities and economies. The pandemic has exposed socioeconomic disparities and weaknesses in health systems worldwide. Long-term health effects and economic recovery are major concerns. Ecosystem restoration-ie, the repair of ecosystems that have been degraded-relates directly to tackling the health and socioeconomic burdens of COVID-19, because stable and resilient ecosystems are fundamental determinants of health and socioeconomic stability. Here, we use COVID-19 as a case study, showing how ecosystem restoration can reduce the risk of infection and adverse sequelae and have an integral role in humanity's recovery from COVID-19. The next decade will be crucial for humanity's recovery from COVID-19 and for ecosystem repair. Indeed, in the absence of effective, large-scale restoration, 95% of the Earth's land could be degraded by 2050. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30) declaration reflects the growing urgency and scale at which we should repair ecosystems. Importantly, ecosystem restoration could also help to combat the health and socioeconomic issues that are associated with COVID-19, yet it is poorly integrated into current responses to the disease. Ecosystem restoration can be a core public health intervention and assist in COVID-19 recovery if it is closely integrated with socioeconomic, health, and environmental policies.

Ecohealth Villages: A Framework for an Ecosystem Approach to Health in Human Settlements

As life emerged on Earth, it began to affect its environments. It still does. The complex interactions between living things and their environments mediate the character of both. Today, this is apparent in the global impacts humans have made on ecosystems, with resultant reciprocal impacts on human health. This paper is concerned with that reciprocity, which may be considered as a link between ecosystems and human populations. We will distinguish an ecosystem approach to human health—or ecohealth—from One Health and planetary health perspectives. We will also propose a conceptual framework that can be used to distinguish human settlements as Ecohealth Villages. Broadly defined, an Ecohealth Village is a settlement that recognizes the interactions between healthy ecosystems and the health of people who live, work, learn, and play in it. The key principles of an Ecohealth Villages are as follows: community ownership, ecological restoration, sustainability, social and gender equity, integrated perspectives, and traditional practices and knowledge. Together, they support a holistic, ecosystem approach to health in human settlements, as demonstrated in case studies from Mexico and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Restoration Trajectories and Ecological Thresholds during Planted Urban Forest Successional Development

Successfully reconstructing functioning forest ecosystems from early-successional tree plantings is a long-term process that often lacks monitoring. Many projects lack observations of critical successional information, such as the restoration trajectory of key ecosystem attributes and ecological thresholds, which signal that management actions are needed. Here, we present results from a 65 ha urban temperate rainforest restoration project in Aotearoa New Zealand, where trees have been planted annually on public retired pasture land, forming a 14 years chronosequence. In 25 plots (100 m2 each), we measured key ecosystem attributes that typically change during forest succession: native tree basal area, canopy openness, non-native herbaceous ground cover, leaf litter cover, ground fern cover, dead trees, and native tree seedling abundance and richness. We also monitored for the appearance of physiologically-sensitive plant guilds (moss, ferns, and epiphytes) that may be considered ecological indicators of succession. Linear regression models identified relationships between all but one of the key ecosystem attributes and forest age (years since planting). Further, using breakpoint analysis, we found that ecological thresholds occurred in many ecosystem attributes during their restoration trajectories: reduced canopy openness (99.8% to 3.4%; 9.6 years threshold), non-native herbaceous ground cover (100% to 0; 10.9 years threshold), leaf litter cover (0 to 95%; 10.8 years threshold), and increased tree deaths (0 to 4; 11 years threshold). Further, juvenile native plant recruitment increased (tree seedling abundance 0 to ~150 per 4 m2), tree seedling species richness (0 to 13 per 100 m2) and epiphytes colonized (0 to 3 individuals per 100 m2). These and other physiologically-sensitive plant guilds appeared around the 11 years mark, confirming their utility as ecological indicators during monitoring. Our results indicate that measurable, ecological thresholds occur during the restoration trajectories of ecosystem attributes, and they are predictable. If detected, these thresholds can inform project timelines and, along with use of ecological indicators, inform management interventions.

Forests under the Southern Cross: The forest environmental frontier in Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand share many historical and contemporary commonalities. These define five contemporary forest environmental frontiers-for First Nations peoples, between agriculture and forestry, in forest management, in urban and peri-urban environments, and in relation to climate change. In both countries, the First Nations frontier is expanding in scale and significance with those peoples' rights to land and forests. Frontiers with agriculture and in forest management are longstanding but dynamic and as yet little realised in relation to the need for forest and landscape restoration. Both countries are highly urbanised, elevating the significance of the urban and peri-urban frontier, particularly in the context of climate change. In both countries, forests will be profoundly impacted by climate change and are central to mitigation and adaptation strategies. Experience within and intersections between the frontiers offer encouraging prospects for synergies and for learning between the two countries and more widely.

Ecological countermeasures for preventing zoonotic disease outbreaks: when ecological restoration is a human health imperative

Ecological restoration should be regarded as a public health service. Unfortunately, the lack of quantitative linkages between environmental and human health has limited recognition of this principle. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic provides the impetus for further discussion. We propose ecological countermeasures as highly targeted, landscape-based interventions to arrest the drivers of land use-induced zoonotic spillover. We provide examples of ecological restoration activities that reduce zoonotic disease risk and a five-point action plan at the human-ecosystem health nexus. In conclusion, we make the case that ecological countermeasures are a tenet of restoration ecology with human health goals.