What is passive restoration in ecology?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

wetland restoration — ecological restoration Wetland restoration along the Târnava Mică (Tîrnava Mică) River in Romania. A former gravel mine (left) was transformed into a functional wetland (right).

Passive restoration is an approach to ecological restoration where specialists allow a site to recover naturally by simply removing the source of disturbance. This method relies on the process of ecological succession to return an area to a pre-disturbed state without significant human intervention.1

Examples of passive restoration include:
* Halting agricultural tillage.1
* Stopping the overuse of riverbanks by livestock.1

This strategy is effective when an ecosystem has not crossed a threshold of degradation that would prevent natural recovery. If a site is too severely damaged—such as when soil or water resources are compromised—passive restoration is often insufficient, and restorationists must instead engage in active restoration to accelerate the recovery process.1