title: Is restoring an ecosystem good for your health?
abstract: It is well known that the degradation of ecosystems can have serious impacts on human health. There is currently a knowledge gap on what impact restoring ecosystems has on human health. In restoring ecosystems there is a drive to restore the functionality of ecosystems rather than restoring ecosystems to 'pristine' condition. Even so, the complete restoration of all ecosystem functions is not necessarily possible. Given the uncertain trajectory of the ecosystem during the ecosystem restoration process the impact of the restoration on human health is also uncertain. Even with this uncertainty, the restoration of ecosystems for human health is still a necessity.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, The University of Western Australia, PO Box 5771, Albany, Western Australia 6330, Australia. Electronic address: peter.speldewinde@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Speldewinde
authors.affiliation: Barbara Hardy Institute, University of South Australia, City East Campus, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia. Electronic address: David.Slaney@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Slaney
authors.affiliation: University of South Australia, City East Campus, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia. Electronic address: Phil.Weinstein@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinstein
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans
keywords: Biodiversity; Ecosystem degradation; Ecosystem restoration; Public health; Vector borne disease