Udo Bröring

Ecological restoration as precaution and not as restitutional compensation

Ecological restoration has become a major issue in environmental management. To overcome the backward orientation of the restoration concept (focusing on reference states and natural ecosystems) the introduction of a precautionary principle is proposed. The principle has been developed for decision-making under high uncertainty about the probability and severity of an environmental damage. Meanwhile, it has been accepted in many countries of the world as a guiding principle for environmental legislation. Likewise it is the basis for international conventions aiming at the conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, biodiversity is still neglected in large reclamation projects. Several links between precaution and restoration are described. Restoration can be used to prevent future damage. Otherwise restoration is plagued by uncertainty about the outcome of the measures and may have negative effects or even fail. An analysis of common evaluation methods of restoration projects shows that most approaches focus on comparison of restoration results with a reference state, and are thus useless in a precautionary context. Other methods (e.g. comparing restored with unrestored sites) require data gathered by long-term observation (monitoring) of socio-economically defined desired states (Leitbild). Two large-scale restoration projects are analyzed, coastal land reclamation in Korea and open cast mining reclamation in Germany. Both projects had or have honorific aims and are legally admissible. However, they violate both international law based on precaution and simple rules of prudence or wise use. Costly post hoc ‘restoration’ measures are the usual consequence.

Ecological Orientors: Pattern and Process of Succession in Relation to Ecological Orientors

A theoretical analysis reveals that the concept of “succession” is generally applied both to community and ecosystem phenomena, which must be kept strictly apart. “Succession” is also applied to phenomena which we call “dynamics”, “change” and “development”. Additionally, any satisfactory theory on the temporal behavior of ecological systems must account for both succession and its logical counterpart, constancy. Furthermore, it is shown that the community level is difficult to distinguish from both the population and the ecosystem level. Important community characteristics which enable us to delimit the community from other observation levels can be drawn from the analysis of semiautonomous behavior of hierarchically ordered levels. A list of aspects relating to semi-autonomy distinguishing the community both from the ecosystem and the population is presented. The confusion relating to key concepts of spatial and temporal relations in ecological systems is outlined. Different terminologies are necessary to speak about observational and theoretical entities. “Pattern” and “process” are adequate terms of an observational terminology, while “structure” and “function” are terms of theoretical reasoning. Also, discreteness or continuity of phenomena must be described in different terms. The term “process” accounts for continuous phenomena, while the term “event” is necessary to describe discrete ones.

Assessing Biodiversity in SEA

Biodiversity refers to number and difference of living objects over a wide range of observational levels, in particular genes, species and ecosystems (Art. 2 of the Convention on Biodiversity). Biodiversity management is regarded as a part of an integrated sustainability approach. The science of biodiversity is facing six major difficulties: defining biodiversity, measuring biodiversity, giving a causal explana-tion of biodiversity, assessing the function of biodiversity, evaluating biodiversity, and making decisions for biodiversity (Wiegleb 2003; 2004d). Definition and measurement of biodiversity are basic ecological tasks, mostly in the context of explanation and prediction of biodiversity patterns and dynamics. Evaluation and decision-making are characteristic for environmental planning, management and policy (Jessel 1996). Common to both aspects is the necessity of understanding the causal and functional relationships of biodiversity. Unfortunately the connection between the domains of ecology and planning is often negatively affected by different use of terminology and lacking distinction between factual and evaluative statement on both sides (Peters 1997). In ecology measurement of biodiversity is based on counting species richness or calculating a diversity index. Measurement of biodiversity in planning and decision-making has to take into account the language in which planning and management objectives are formulated. Both species and habitat oriented parameters are used for the defi-nition of planning and management objectives and subsequent distance-to-target measurement. So far no generally accepted framework for biodiversity evaluation has been developed. A pluralistic approach based on a discoursive development of guiding principles for regional and global biodiversity protection seems to be ade-quate.SEA can be taken as an extension of EIA beyond single impacts and projects (Richtlinie 2001; Secretariat of CBD 2002). The ultimate aim of SEA is to antici-pate all possible environmental impacts of comprehensive strategic actions long before single projects are implemented or single measures are applied.

Muster der Artenzusammensetzung von Wirbellosen in Offenlandbereichen der Bergbaufolgelandschaft

Standardisierte Erhebungen der Besiedlung von 22 Probeflachen des Offenlandes der Niederlausitzer Bergbaufolgelandschaft mit Wirbellosen erbrachten folgende Artenzahlen: 146 Laufkafer- und Sandlaufkafer (Carabidae, Cicindelidae), 197 Kurzflugelkafer (Staphylinidae), 124 Wanzen (Heteroptera), 25 Heuschrecken (Saltatoria), 3 Ohrwurmer (Dermaptera), 3 Schaben (Blattodea) und 223 Spinnen (Araneae). Es wurden die Artenidentitat aller Probeflachen nach Sorensen und Renkonen errechnet und eine Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) Ordination durchgefuhrt. Alle drei Berechnungen zeigen ubereinstimmend zwei wesentliche Einflusse auf die Artenzusammensetzung der Flachen. Das sind zum einen die raumliche Autokorrelation von Probeflachen, die einem Tagebau zugehoren und zum anderen die Vegetationsstruktur. Das Ahnlichkeitsmuster der Probeflachen ist das Ergebnis von zwei sich uberlagernden Mustern, da beide Effekte raumlich betrachtet nicht gleichsinnig wirken. Das Alter der Probeflachen zeigt keinen erkennbaren Einflus auf die Artenzusammensetzung. Fur die Besiedlung und Sukzession der Flachen mit Wirbellosen mus geschlossen werden, das die erstbesiedelnden Arten alle nachfolgenden Stadien pragen. Als wesentlicher Umweltparameter hat die Vegetationsstruktur bestimmenden Einflus auf die Artenzusammensetzung der Wirbellosen von Offenlandflachen der Bergbaufolgelandschaft.

Synoptische Einführung in das Thema „Naturschutzfachliche Bewertungsverfahren im Rahmen der Leitbildmethode“

Leitbildentwicklung, Datenerhebung, Bewertung und die Entwicklung daraus resultierender Handlungskonzepte bilden ein komplexes Geflecht, das operational auszuarbeiten ist. Dabei bildet die Bewertung als Abgleich von Soll-Ist-Zustanden, aus dem dann Rahmenbedingungen fur Handlungskonzepte folgen, die Schnittstelle zwischen den verschiedenen Elementen der guten naturschutzfachlichen Praxis. Bewertung kann dabei mit unterschiedlichen Konnotationen gefuhrt werden: Der Begriff bezeichnet zum einen etwa ein fur einen bestimmten Fall anzuwendendes Verfahren zur Ermittlung eines Handlungsbedarfes, weiterhin aber auch bestimmte Verfahren, die nach Variantenprufung Entscheidungen uber die Vorgehensweisen bereitstellen. Entscheidende zusatzliche Elemente einer guten naturschutzfachlichen Praxis zur Forderung breiter Akzeptabilitat und Akzeptanz sind neben operationalen, d.h. auch im offentlichen Raum nachvollziehbaren Bewertungsverfahren die Diskursivitat auf allen Ebenen des Planungsprozesses und die Szenariotechnik zur Entscheidungsfindung. Wichtige offene Probleme bleiben zunachst die Einbettung von Diskursivitat und Szenariotechnik in eine allgemeine Diskursethik und die Rechtfertigung von Wertzuweisungen und naturschutzfachlichem Handeln im Rahmen einer allgemeinen Rechtfertigungstheorie.