[ERA Webinar]: A Systems Thinking View of Ecological Restoration

What drives certain trends that are currently emerging around ecological restoration in India? Why have unscientific quick fix and non-inclusive approaches to restoration become so popular? How do factors beyond individual and organisational control influence how we approach restoration? How do we comprehend the big picture even as we work in our specialised domains within it? Here, Kabir Sharma paints the big picture of ecological restoration in India and outlines the complexity of factors that influence it.

00:00:00 – Preview
00:02:17 – Why a systems approach is needed
00:04:49 – Arjun introduces Kabir
00:06:33 – An overview
00:09:19 – Some emerging trends in the restoration space
00:11:30 – The system as an iceberg: Most of what drives the system is not immediately apparent
00:13:29 – Making sense of causes and effects
00:15:05 – Systems thinking captures the big picture, not details.
00:16:36 – How to interpret a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD)
00:17:35 – Unpacking the Systems Map of ecological restoration in India
00:20:28 – How quick fix tree planting “solutions” compete with ecological restoration
00:22:45 – Area under green cover and area under restoration are very different things
00:23:38 – Why compensatory afforestation pushes more quick fix plantations
00:26:12 – Media reporting can shape dominant forces in the system
00:27:29 – Ecological restoration is gaining momentum with its own reinforcing loops
00:39:10 – When quick fix tree plantations backfire
00:43:38 – The Systems Map in its entirety
00:44:54 – Different groups pull the system in different directions
00:46:35 – Only by changing the dominant forces in a system can its outcomes be changed
00:49:19 – How could restoration outcomes be changed?
00:52:11 – Changing how we measure success
00:55:50 – How do our actions influence the system?
00:57:53 – Demo: Adding your own interventions to the Restoration systems map on Kumu
01:06:05 – Why we made this map open to all

Questions & Answers

01:09:08 – Can this model incorporate black swan events?
01:11:38 – On the role of increased awareness
01:15:35 – On the second and third order effects of quick fix plantations
01:18:39 – On educating industries on the right way of restoration
01:22:05 – On using new measures to influence older, problematic loops
01:24:20 – Including biodiversity parameters and food chain establishment
01:26:36 – Local communities, grazing pressures and unintended consequences
01:32:14 – Accounting for competing interests within community