Social-ecological restoration for promoting resilience and reducing vulnerability

Ecological restoration has a critical role to play in promoting resilience and reducing vulnerability of human populations to extreme events. Yet in practice, the role of ecological restoration in human vulnerability and poverty reduction has been under explored and under utilized when compared to other poverty and vulnerability reduction measures. This paper synthesizes recent work on the role of ecosystems in buffering against extreme events and on the nexus of restoration and resilience in hazard mitigation. Social-ecological assessments conducted at several case study sites, which include post-tsunami Sri Lanka, heavily exploited forest systems in Madagascar and highly developed coastal areas of the Seychelles, will be reviewed within the context of generating an integrated framework linking ecological restoration,  and socio-ecological resilience. This framework can help inform the development of an ecological restoration program that aims to restore the functions that underpin resilience in both human and ecological communities, now and in the future.