HOPES FOR THE FUTURE - RESTORATION ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

Conversion of natural habitats into agricultural and industrial landsc apes, and ultimately into degraded land, is the major impact of humans on the natural environment, posing a great threat to biodiversity. Th e emerging discipline of restoration ecology provides a powerful suite of tools for speeding the recovery of degraded lands. In doing so, re storation ecology provides a crucial complement to the establishment o f nature reserves as a way of increasing land for the preservation of biodiversity. An integrated understanding of how human population grow th and changes in agricultural practice interact with natural recovery processes and restoration ecology provides some hope for the future o f the environment.