Abstract
Much of the practice of restoration is conducted by businesses—contractors, consultants, designers, engineers. Restoration businesses interact with a variety of stakeholders to complete projects on time and on budget, and to achieve ecological and business objectives. Our research explores the business perspective in restoration; it is based on data collected from businesses (contractors, consultants, design engineers), agencies, and nongovernmental organizations involved in a Superfund cleanup project in Montana, one of the largest river restoration efforts ever. Our findings highlight several areas restoration businesses must navigate. First, restoration businesses must juggle potentially competing goals, maintaining ecological integrity while achieving profitability objectives. Second, these businesses must manage the risk that arises from variability in the natural environment as well as individuals' risk tolerances. Third, they must navigate the disconnect between “science” and “practice,” including how to best monitor restoration projects. Fourth, they must make decisions about new techniques and innovations. Fifth, on-the-ground implementation must acknowledge that personnels' motives and expertise might conflict with original plans. We discuss these findings in relation to relevant scholarly research, offering implications for theory and practice. For example, the business of ecological restoration requires learning over time to be profitable while achieving the desired ecological and social outcomes; restoration businesses leverage monitoring in pursuit of adaptive management and engage “frontline personnel” as important voices in the restoration process. Understanding the business of restoration adds an important perspective in the complex dynamics of social-ecological systems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 381-390 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Restoration Ecology |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2018 |
Funding
The first author thanks Dr Maurice Valett; without his serendipitous question about the intersection of business and restoration, this project never would have been conceived. The authors thank the project participants for their time and thoughtful responses during the interviews. They also thank Ragan Callaway and Cara Nelson, University of Montana, for working with us to envision how this research fits into interdisciplinary research on restoration. They thank Laurie Yung, Department of Society and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, U.S.A., for helping to design the research and the coding of the results. They thank graduate students Peter Metcalf, and David Craig, Department of Society and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, U.S.A., for their assistance in data collection and coding. This material is supported by the Montana NSF EPSCoR Program and the National Science Foundation under award number IAA-1443108. The authors have no conflict of interests to declare in this research.
| Funder number |
|---|
| IAA-1443108, 1633831 |
Keywords
- business of restoration
- ecological restoration
- restoration business
- restoration economy
- restoration practitioners