From degradation to restoration: Using the past to shine the pathway to waterway recovery

Humanity has exceeded sustainability boundaries for factors that sustain aquatic ecosystems and so society is operating outside Safe Operating Spaces: those within which society has evolved over the long term. Our inland waterways have suffered through loss and degradation through the industrial revolution. The degree of biodiversity loss in inland waterways exceeds that of the oceans and the land and freshwater vertebrates are at great risk of extinction. The Ramsar Convention was established to arrest the loss and degradation of the world's most significant wetlands. While the Convention has been effective in slowing this trajectory many wetlands have been lost or degraded since it was signed in 1971. The UN Decade of Restoration calls on nations to work to allow our ecosystems to recover from the impacts of industrialised people. This goal require us to identify desirable ecosystem states that act as targets for management. By characterising past, natural variability we can see the planetary boundaries we have exceeded, envision the factors that need addressing and acknowledge the magnitude of the challenge to return to sustainable states. The Society for Ecological Restoration identifies 'appropriate native baseline' as a target for restoration measures. This past condition of our inland waterways is readily identifiable through historical approaches including through paleolimnological techniques. The recognition of this past state is essential in assisting us to rebuild ecosystem resilience in the pursuit of a sustainable future within Planetary Boundaries.