What does landscape restoration aim to achieve?

Landscape restoration primarily focuses on rehabilitating and reviving degraded landscapes to restore their ecological health and functionality. A key objective of this practice is to accurately replicate or enhance the historic form, function, and features of a given landscape, which often involves reintroducing native plants and recreating historical conditions that may have been lost due to development or degradation.

By accurately depicting the historic form or features of a property, landscape restoration honors the ecological and cultural significance of an area, making it beneficial for biodiversity, local communities, and ecosystem services. This approach often includes understanding the historical context of a site, recognizing the ecological processes that have shaped it, and applying this knowledge to restore balance to the landscape.

While other choices—such as replacing existing flora, increasing economic value, or expanding urban infrastructure—can be related to land use and management, they do not encapsulate the primary and essential aim of landscape restoration, which is to revive and maintain historical and ecological integrity.