The belief that complex ecosystems are fully restorable opens the door to trade-off schemes between development and restoration and may lead to loss of high-value conservation areas.
The expectation that systems can be restored underlies much policy on offsets and mitigation. For instance, it has been found that only 21 per cent of wetland mitigation sites met tests of ecological equivalency to lost wetlands,“ ecologist Richard Hobbs said.
Read more at The University of Western Australia