The role of humans in the restoration of ecosystems has been emphasised since its inception. The human dimension of restoration is particularly well established in urban ecosystems because this intervention inevitably affects how people interact with the nature in their backyard. At the same time, humans place constrains on restoration in its strictest sense—assisting the recovery of analogue ecosystems—because of the altered biophysical conditions that characterise cities. Rather than viewing this as a shortcoming, in this talk, we discuss the ways in which such constraints can be viewed as opportunities. First, there is the chance to re-think restoration goals in the urban context and second, to test the utility of alternate goals and how these might be implemented. For example, the urban ecosystems offer the opportunity to test assisted migration as a means of climate change adaptation.
Results/Conclusions
We explore these ideas using the coastal city of Perth, Western Australia, as a case study. Perth is home to 1.6 million people and a smattering of green spaces and wild places. Here, urban development is recent compared with cities in the Old World, so the wild places contain mostly intact fragments of endemic banksia woodland that clothed the coastal plain prior to urbanization. These woodlands make a valuable case study for this symposium because intervention is necessary to ensure their persistence in the face of ongoing climate change. We present the results of a field experiment using rainout shelters and the implications for climate change adaptation and ‘sense of place’. Finally, we consider how urban restoration, by engaging people with nature, can also play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation.
