Nature restoration can help recover biodiversity and improve the condition of ecosystems. Its wider implications, however, extend beyond ecological outcomes alone. Restoration measures also require resources, can generate benefits for people and society, and may affect communities, economic activities and stakeholder groups in different ways.
Understanding these interactions is essential for making informed restoration decisions. Policymakers, land managers, practitioners and other stakeholders need evidence that captures the ecological results of restoration alongside its economic and social implications, including benefits that cannot easily be expressed in monetary terms.
NatuRISE – Nature Restoration Impact Assessment for Socio-Economic and Ecological Benefits – is working to strengthen this evidence base. By bringing together ecological and socio-economic assessment, modelling, case studies and stakeholder knowledge, the project aims to help decision-makers understand the wider implications of restoration choices across different contexts.
Four dimensions for understanding nature restoration
1. Ecological outcomes: what changes for nature?
Restoration aims to improve ecosystems and biodiversity, but the outcomes depend on the ecological conditions, the measures implemented and the context in which they take place. Assessing these outcomes is essential for understanding whether restoration achieves its intended ecological objectives and how its effects relate to other environmental and societal priorities.
NatuRISE brings ecological assessment into a broader analysis of restoration impacts, helping to connect changes in ecosystems with the benefits and wider consequences they may generate.
2. Costs and benefits: what does restoration require, and what can it deliver?
Restoration requires resources, and its costs and benefits may emerge at different times and affect different groups. Understanding these dimensions can help decision-makers assess the implications of alternative restoration options, identify potential trade-offs and synergies, and consider how restoration choices relate to economic and societal priorities.
A comprehensive assessment needs to consider both the resources required to implement restoration and the benefits it can generate. This includes ecosystem services and other contributions of nature to people, as well as the wider socio-economic effects associated with restoration measures.
NatuRISE is developing evidence and assessment approaches to help make these costs, benefits and interactions more visible and useful for decision-making.
3. Plural values: how do we account for what nature means to people?
The value of nature cannot always be captured through market prices or monetary estimates. People may attach importance to ecosystems for their ecological functions, cultural significance, recreational opportunities, sense of place and other contributions to their lives and communities.
Recognising these plural values broadens the evidence available for restoration decisions. It helps decision-makers consider different perspectives on what matters, including values that conventional economic assessments may not fully capture.
NatuRISE addresses this challenge by bringing different forms of evidence and stakeholder knowledge into the assessment of nature restoration impacts.
4. Distributional effects: who benefits, and who bears the costs?
The overall benefits of restoration do not necessarily accrue to the same people or places that bear its costs. Effects can differ between communities, land managers, economic sectors and other stakeholder groups, depending on the restoration measures chosen and the local context.
Understanding these distributional effects is important for assessing the wider implications of restoration decisions. It can help identify who stands to gain, who may face additional costs or constraints, and where different interests or priorities need to be considered.
By examining distributional dimensions alongside ecological and socio-economic outcomes, NatuRISE aims to support a more complete understanding of the implications of restoration choices and inform decisions that account for different groups and contexts.
From integrated evidence to better-informed decisions
These four dimensions are interconnected. A restoration measure may improve ecological conditions while requiring substantial investment; it may generate benefits that are difficult to express in monetary terms; and its costs and benefits may be experienced differently by different groups.
Assessing each dimension in isolation can leave important parts of the picture unexplored. An integrated approach can help decision-makers understand these interactions, compare restoration options and recognise potential trade-offs and synergies.
NatuRISE brings together ecological and socio-economic assessment, modelling, case studies and stakeholder knowledge to develop a broader evidence base for nature restoration. Its work will contribute to assessment methods, indicators, data and decision-support approaches designed to help policymakers, practitioners and other users explore restoration impacts across different contexts.
As the project progresses, this research will help clarify what needs to be considered when evaluating restoration choices, how different forms of evidence can inform those evaluations, and how the resulting knowledge can support practical decisions.
The goal is to make the wider implications of nature restoration more visible, so that decisions can draw on a more complete understanding of ecological outcomes, costs, benefits, values and distributional effects.
Follow NatuRISE to discover how the project’s research develops and how its findings can support the assessment and implementation of nature restoration.
Read more about nature restoration impact assessment
Explore how NatuRISE brings ecological and socio-economic evidence together to assess restoration outcomes, costs, benefits and wider impacts.