climateXchange

Post edited 4:05 pm – December 15, 2010 by OutandAbout
Post edited 4:06 pm – December 15, 2010 by OutandAbout

On 9 December 2010, I attended the Ecological Restoration film night at the ANU and was amazed at the examples in the films of restoration of ecosystems on a mass scale.

One film showed the restoration of a huge 35,000 square km area on the Loess Plateau in China that had become barren after thousands of years of subsistence farming. A really positive aspect of the story was the full engagement of the local impoverished inhabitants, despite their initial doubts, in the restoration process, including by terracing the eroded hills. Their standard of living rose significantly as their surroundings were transformed in 15 years from a dust bowl to a verdant and productive landscape.

There was also film coverage of similar projects in Ethiopia and Rwanda that have made big strides in restoring balance to degraded landscapes.

You can watch the film about these international examples of mass landscape restoration at http://www.hopeinachangingclimate.org/

There was also a film about the Mulligans Flat Woodlands Sanctuary project right here in the ACT, which involves the installation of an 11.5 kilometre predator-proof fence enclosing a 450-hectare ‘Sanctuary’. Within the Sanctuary, a box-gum grassy woodland ecosystem will be restored and locally extinct wildlife will be reintroduced. You can find out all about the project at http://people.anu.edu.au/adria…..arroo.html.