Green Gold - Ecological restoration around the world
I thought I would share with you this excellent film by John D. Liu on restoring damaged landscapes across the world, it's well worth a look.
This is one of the films that really switched me on to what is possible, and the power of using science and clever, holistic, integrated design systems to facilitate the restoration of ecological function across a wide range of climates.
The work they did in China was truly impressive, and just goes to show what can be achieved.
One of the examples that has always stuck with me however is in Rwanda - where the conversion of a wetland to farmland had such an impact on the watershed that the hydroelectric power station powering the capital Kigali was forced to resort to spending many thousands of dollars a day on diesel to run generators. This eye waveringly expensive situation however was turned around once they realised what the cause was, and the restoration of that wetland allowed the hydrological cycle to function again and power could be generated from the flow as before - not only restoring habitat, biodiversity and many other functions but saving the government a great deal of money. Now while I'm a bit conflicted over the concept of pricing 'ecosystem services', it's clear that this was a really clear example of how we derive measurable benefit from functioning ecologies.
The film has many of them and I really enjoy re-watching it from time to time.
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If you are interested in finding out more, or following John D. Liu's work, you can click through to the following links:
Environmental Education Media Project: http://eempc.org/
What If We Change restoration media project: http://www.whatifwechange.org
Restoring Large Scaled Damaged Ecological Systems: http://greendeserts.wordpress.com/
Research, Training and Innovation Centres for Ecological Restoration: https://www.facebook.com/Innovationce...
Papers and other documentaries: https://knaw.academia.edu/JohnDLiu
This is one of the films that really switched me on to what is possible, and the power of using science and clever, holistic, integrated design systems to facilitate the restoration of ecological function across a wide range of climates.
The work they did in China was truly impressive, and just goes to show what can be achieved.
One of the examples that has always stuck with me however is in Rwanda - where the conversion of a wetland to farmland had such an impact on the watershed that the hydroelectric power station powering the capital Kigali was forced to resort to spending many thousands of dollars a day on diesel to run generators. This eye waveringly expensive situation however was turned around once they realised what the cause was, and the restoration of that wetland allowed the hydrological cycle to function again and power could be generated from the flow as before - not only restoring habitat, biodiversity and many other functions but saving the government a great deal of money. Now while I'm a bit conflicted over the concept of pricing 'ecosystem services', it's clear that this was a really clear example of how we derive measurable benefit from functioning ecologies.
The film has many of them and I really enjoy re-watching it from time to time.
- - - -
If you are interested in finding out more, or following John D. Liu's work, you can click through to the following links:
Environmental Education Media Project: http://eempc.org/
What If We Change restoration media project: http://www.whatifwechange.org
Restoring Large Scaled Damaged Ecological Systems: http://greendeserts.wordpress.com/
Research, Training and Innovation Centres for Ecological Restoration: https://www.facebook.com/Innovationce...
Papers and other documentaries: https://knaw.academia.edu/JohnDLiu