Ecological restoration in the slipstream of agricultural policy in the old and new world

Abstract

The restoration of ecosystems to stop biodiversity losses in agricultural landscapes has high priority in many regions of the world. It does not take place in a vacuum but is nested in a socio-historical and agro-political context. Austria and Western Australia (WA) are examples of old and newly impacted agricultural environments, and these are used to examine two contrasting agro-political and agro-economic frameworks within which ecological restoration currently operates. WA is characterised by ancient, nutrient-impoverished, and degraded agricultural landscapes that have been under cultivation for some 100 years and support a low density rural population. In Austria agriculture has been practised for some 7000 years and the European Union (EU) and its extensive funding system largely determine agro-political policies. The paper concludes that: (1) differences in agro-political priorities have resulted in diverging agro-economic systems where producers are heavily subsidised (EU) or largely unsubsidised (WA); (2) diverging agro-political priorities result from differences in terms of land degradation; demographic characteristics, and duration of respective agriculture; (3) WA failed to develop a financial strategy aimed at ecological restoration for biodiversity conservation while Austria benefits from a EU-driven subsidy system to maintain biodiversity conservation; (4) the Landcare movement plays a significant role in the restoration of biodiversity in WA, but is largely absent in the EU; (5) different environmental and social histories demand different approaches to improve the economic frameworks within which ecological restoration is conducted in each region.