Habitat Conservation and Restoration

Habitat conservation and restoration are the processes and outcomes of actions taken to mitigate the detrimental ecological effects of urban development. They have roots in the conservation movement, but differ greatly from their predecessor. The conservation movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries focused on preserving wild and scenic lands as refuges from the intensity of industrial urban areas. When nature was considered at all in relation to cities, it was generally as a recreational amenity, and a method of providing relief from the stress of urban life. Few visionaries saw the wider implications of the declining environmental quality in cities and the stress exerted by the resource demands of expanding urban populations and its effect on the health of natural systems in ...