The Importance of Cultural Values in Ecological Restorations: A Systematic Review

Ecological restoration is the process of repairing ecosystems that have been degraded by human activity. Because success depends upon the support of communities, engaging with the cultural values held by local people is critical to the restoration process. Cultural values are closely held beliefs about what is important to local communities, grounded in historical and contemporary cultural relationships with ecosystems. To address to what extent restoration projects in the peer-reviewed literature consider cultural values, we conducted a systematic review covering 1994-2021, resulting in a sample of 56 articles. From our review, we found that restoration projects include data on cultural values collected mostly through qualitative approaches. Concepts from cultural analysis, ecosystem services, and traditional ecological knowledge are commonly used to frame cultural values in restoration. Drawing on our results, we suggest a standardized process and set of best practices for practitioners and researchers incorporating cultural values into their restoration projects.