To all those interested in developing a better understanding of how to heal our relationship with nature, I could not recommend Ecological Restoration Law: Concepts and Case Studies more highly. The title, however, does not do full justice to the depth of treatment provided, especially its interdisciplinary dimensions. While acknowledging that the volume draws upon a pluralist conception of law, the contents go well beyond what the title would suggest. Building upon recent scientific insights into the complexity of the natural world, the volume offers critical observations on the governance of ecological restoration. These include examinations of its spatial and temporal dimensions, the challenges of linking restoration ecology and public policy, matters in relation to social justice, and the importance of participatory practices, including the involvement of business interests, environmental organizations, and community and tribal groups. There are also several case studies provided.

The book is based on a special issue of Griffith Law Review,Footnote ¹ but with additional chapters commissioned to cover gaps, particularly on law and finance (see Chapter 7 by Froukje Maria Platjouw and Chapter 10 by Anastasia Telesetsky), and to address the legal dimensions of the use of restoration as an adaptation and mitigation tool to address climate change (see Chapter 9 by Uzuazo Etemire and Menes Abinami Muzan, and Chapter 12 by Phillipa McCormack). Of particular interest is the inclusion of inquiry into the role of private landowners and related ownership issues (see Chapter 3 by Benjamin J. Richardson; Chapter 5 by Robyn Bartel and Nicole Graham; and Chapter 10 by Anastasia Telesetsky). While identifying the governance and legal gaps that exist, contributions often move beyond emphasis on deficiencies to suggest how such gaps can be overcome to improve our efforts to use restoration to aid the recovery of the natural world.

This is an important and timely book. Commitments made at the international level, including through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)Footnote ² and its related Aichi Targets,Footnote ³ the Bonn ChallengeFootnote ⁴ and the European Union (EU) Biodiversity Strategy,Footnote ⁵ to name but a few, will see enhanced use of restoration as an environmental and thus a social policy tool. However, environmental law has not kept pace with developments in ecological restoration practices (see Chapter 6 by An Cliquet and Kris Decleer). In addition, the legal profession often makes decisions that are not informed by recent developments in ecology, particularly by failing to take account of both the extinction debt – the delay in species loss caused by habitat destruction or degradationFootnote ⁶ – and ecological traps – in which species respond to human-induced rapid environmental change by mistakenly preferring suboptimal habitat.Footnote ⁷ This volume addresses these lacunae, to provide a rich analysis of the role of environmental restoration law and a critique of eco-restoration governance in the context of the contemporary crisis arising from global environmental change. It is not my intention here to summarize the volume, not least because the introductory chapter does an excellent job in this respect – providing not only a synopsis of each chapter, but an additional thematic framing. The introduction also offers a very interesting methodological grouping of chapters in Part 1 around the concept of ‘critique’, understood as both an exposure of the concept of restoration to critical investigation, and as an unpacking of the new modes of governance that are needed both to envisage and mobilize efforts to help with nature's recovery. This second understanding is picked up more directly in the empirical chapters, the case studies of which form Part 2 of the volume.

It is difficult to resist pointing to one of the most exciting and forward-thinking chapters in the book, which addresses the need to take account of the animism inherent in the world of living matter (Chapter 2 by Afshin Akhtar-Khavari). Criticizing the social contract as underpinning an anthropocentric approach to the natural world, this chapter examines the notion of the ‘natural contract’, as developed earlier by Michael Serres.Footnote ⁸ Akhtar-Khavari uses Serres’ work, but updates it with recent scholarship on the capacity of plants both to act intelligently and feel or perceive, including through having memory. This scholarship stands in stark contrast to humanity's existing everyday language and scientific vocabulary for plants – not to mention our broader treatment of plants – which fail to take account of the complexity of living matter. This failure leaves us deaf to nature. Akhtar-Khavari argues that we need to find new ways to listen to nature in order to promote more appropriate forms of restoration. The conclusion to the chapter is, however, somewhat disappointing, as the author digresses into definitional matters and into rather simple forms of practice, such as home gardens and land-stewardship practices of ‘indigenous people’. A more considered and consequential statement as to the significance of his excellent treatment of the animate nature of the world for restoration practices would have been welcome.

Nonetheless, the chapter aligns nicely with the arguments presented by Richardson in Chapter 3, that policymaking on restoration needs to align better with the time scales of nature and the spatial scale of ecology, particularly when property tenure and agency jurisdictions can fragment geographical space to the detriment of restoration outcomes. Indeed, Chapter 3 contains one of the best expositions to be found to date in the literature of the timescapes of nature and their significance for restoration practices. The chapter's agenda for better eco-restoration law is both practical and inspiring.

Key themes of the book, addressed across several chapters, include the need to take account of the plurality of knowledge systems, especially indigenous and local knowledge of biodiversity (Chapter 3 by Richardson; Chapter 5 by Bartel and Graham; Chapter 9 by Etemire and Muzan). There is much that international biodiversity governance regimes can learn from these chapters, especially those working through the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which itself has a commitment to promoting best practice in integrating different knowledge systems into biodiversity research and policy. Similarly, Emily Barritt (Chapter 4), Francine Rochford (Chapter 11), and Phillipa McCormack (Chapter 12) offer engaging and complementary ideas regarding the role of social actors as conservation stewards. Barritt provides an excellent historical analysis of the concept of stewardship and a critical examination of alternative approaches. Rochford expands upon these ideas when she cautions against allowing restoration to become a tool for hastening a purely instrumental attribution of value to nature; and McCormack proposes purposeful human intervention, not as a form of mastery, but as a response to potentially catastrophic losses of the rich diversity of life on Earth. To take another thematic example, several chapters address how the law manages tensions between the biological and the social dimensions of restoration (see, for example, Chapter 9 by Etemire and Muzan, and Chapter 8 by Hendrik Schoukens). Policymakers and restoration practitioners acknowledge the need to find ways to address trade-offs between, on the one hand, restoration for the purpose of ecological and biodiversity benefits and, on the other, for the delivery of ecosystem services, particularly at the community level. These chapters provide excellent critical examinations of these tensions as they are played out on a place-based scale.

While extolling this book's virtues, there are nonetheless some quibbles that can be had with the volume. There is much repetition across chapters of the already well-rehearsed arguments that ecological restoration is difficult to define, given the varieties of activity that can be grouped under the term; that the field needs conceptual clarity; and, for some chapters, of the importance of coalescing around the definition of restoration provided by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). There is also some repetition of the details of the national standards for ecological restoration provided for Australia by the SER Australasia. Other chapters digress from this repetitive exercise, only to provide their own concepts or definitions, sometimes drawing from elsewhere in the literature, sometime presenting novel terms. The editors, while acknowledging the complex terminological differences that exist within the literature, nonetheless skip over the issue, with the result that the task is left to individual chapters. The editors would have done well to tease out these issues once in the introduction and advise the contributors accordingly, not only to avoid repetition but to guard against the unfortunate tendency in academia to unnecessarily invent new concepts, which are often only loosely conceived. There are also very few cross-references between chapters, with the noticeable exception of McCormack's (Chapter 12) willingness to build upon the arguments presented by the other contributions to the volume to advance her own excellent analysis.

The editors were also remiss in not picking up some critical threads that were woven across the fabric of the chapters, in particular in relation to the links between restoration and place making. Many of the chapters point out how restoration can not only enhance a community's sense of place but also speak of the necessity of taking place attachment into account in restoration practices; the editors missed the opportunity to pull these threads of argument together into an integrated contribution. There is also a conspicuous lack of discussion of the gender dimensions of restoration, which is particularly noticeable given the recognition in international governance regimes, among development agencies and within the scientific community of the importance of taking account of the diversity of social and cultural aspects of restoration practices. The book would have benefited from some analysis of the challenges involved in taking account of women's rights, practices, and perspectives, and the consequences that this has for law, particularly framed around matters of equality and diversity. The volume's coverage is also uneven in its spread, with emphasis on examples and case studies from Australia, perhaps a reflection of the institutional affiliation of the editors. Treatment is also uneven in chapters. While the volume overall has a depth of critical presentation, some of the contributions are overly descriptive. Most notably, discussion of the financing of restoration in Chapter 7 provides rich descriptions but lacks a critical voice, particularly when finance is provided by international programmes such as through REDD+. As acknowledged in the book's opening chapter (and examined through a case study in Chapter 11), a growing body of literature points to the unintended and often negative consequences of restoration finance for local communities. With greater cross-referencing and building upon the contributions of other chapters, the treatment of financing may have felt more complete. In contrast, while Schoukens’ treatment of the EU (Chapter 8) is also heavily descriptive, it nevertheless provides us with a close and highly critical exploration of the failure of policy integration, in particular regarding integrating ecological restoration considerations into key EU policy areas such as water, fisheries and agricultural policy, and of the weaknesses of existing legislation as tools to properly implement the EU's restoration pledges.

Despite these quibbles, this volume really does live up to its aspirations to examine critically the ways in which current law and governance practices shape restoration, to reveal the weaknesses in existing legal approaches, in particular when judged from both a social justice and scientific lens, and to cast new light on the legal and governance reforms that are needed to enable the benefits of restoration to be realized not just by marginalized communities, and at a place-based scale, but by other life forms. The interdisciplinary perspectives also advance our theoretical understanding of restoration, too long seen as only a matter of recovery of biological and ecological systems, but now firmly rooted in core concepts of social sciences. As the realization grows that ecological restoration is a deeply social practice, embedded in political context, this book provides an important addition to the literature. It delivers an excellent read for those interested in sharpening our understanding of the complex social and natural dimensions of restoration.