Developing a restoration narrative: A pathway towards system-wide healing and a restorative culture

The current generation of Homo sapiens is paying the bill for the foolishness of, among other things, the Ceteris paribus assumption which postulates that natural capital is infinite and the quality thereof constant. The outcome is an unprecedented ecological overshoot as well as rapid and widespread degradation and fragmentation of both ecological and social systems. Despite their international commitments, few nations currently pay more than lip-service to invest in the widely acknowledged need o from economic as well as ecological perspectives o to invest more heavily to assist the restoration and recovery of degraded ecosystems almost everywhere. There is good evidence from eight recently published meta-analyses of ecological restoration work done at over 1 400 sites, that show that human societies clearly benefit economically from ecological restoration and allied activities. Perversely 8 or predictably o global society's indifference to or denial of this reality is short-sighted in the extreme, and flagrantly neglectful of future generations of all life on earth. We argue that the disjunction between the required and actual investment in restoration is attributable, in part, to both the dysfunction of our political economies and the fact that essentially all human and ecological systems are 'wicked systems' (i.e. complex and complicated, simultaneously). This in turn leads to 'wicked problems' for anyone concerned with making ecological restoration a part of daily life for the next generation. While rational, science-based observations, pilot studies, and modelling can help diagnose a wicked problem, and prescribe ways to launch and sustain large-scale and lasting ecological restoration and recovery of degraded ecosystems, this is patently not sufficient. Invariably people have varying beliefs about, and understanding of, the past, present, and future. This leads to ontological uncertainty when groups of disparate people try to work together on wicked problems, thanks to past conflict and trauma, and differing readings of what has happened, is happening, and may happen in the increasingly unknowable and unpredictable future. This uncertainty introduces risk in all human impacted systems. Scientists, especially those involved in ecological economics and ecological restoration, could help society cross this bridge of uncertainty towards a shared vision and action plan. Working together with people from varying inter-connected fields and disciplines, we call for greater use of structured dialogue, embedded within a restoration narrative, to nurture and promote a 'restorative culture'.