A trend is emerging: renaturation as recovery of ecological functions
If in the context of the ecological improvement of river ecosystems, renaturation was frequently understood in the 2000s as the restoration of a pre-existing state of an ecosystem, the discourse around this term increasingly emphasizes the restoration of ecological functions. The definition set out in the Climate and Resilience Act, which refers to the improvement or restoration of the ecological functions of soils, therefore seems consistent with these developments. To bring renaturation closer to the existing terms in restoration ecology, it is appropriate to use that of ecological rehabilitation . This term particularly concerns degraded ecosystems and describes a restoration or improvement of ecosystem functions . In this sense, the definitions of renaturation that have prevailed in recent years in the scientific literature, as well as that of the ZAN, have strong similarities with that of rehabilitation.
These parallels are not particularly surprising, since renaturation in the ZAN is explicitly a measure that constitutes a response to the destruction or degradation of natural habitats . Indeed, in the future, artificializations must be able to be compensated by de-artificializations, synonymous with renaturation. Beyond the sweden phone number list criticism of a justification of the artificialization of natural surfaces by compensation measures which, according to several studies, have so far only rarely led to effective compensation for biodiversity losses, the parallels between the notion of renaturation and those from the field of restoration ecology can encourage the integration of good practices from restoration ecology into renaturation projects. These practices are in principle based on the restoration of natural dynamics or processes.
Soil restoration and improvement are increasingly at the center of debates on renaturation. Indeed, soil has often been neglected in restoration ecology in the past, which is why more and more scientific publications insist on the integration of ecological knowledge on soil processes and soil biological communities in ecological restoration practices. Similarly, it is observed that, following the promulgation of the Climate and Resilience Law, a large part of French-language publications understand renaturation as a restoration or improvement of soil functions, which is frequently accompanied by the idea of a return to "open ground". In this context, the term soil refunctionalization , which describes a restoration of the ecological functions of soils and is thus very close to the definition of the ZAN law, is regularly mentioned.