Designing the environment – the paradox of eco-restoration. Issue 2 (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rochford, Francine
• Is Part Of: Griffith law review. Volume 26:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 202
• Page End: 220
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Water -- Murray-Darling Basin plan -- eco-restoration -- eco-semiotics; Law -- Australia -- Periodicals; Law reviews -- Australia -- Periodicals; 349.94
• DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2017.1366256
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1038-3441

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Meaning is constructed in an environment by all ecological communities, and perception, creation of meaning and action on the environment have creative and chaotic effects. Using the idea of eco-semiotics as a reflective tool, this analysis will critique the mandate of 'eco-restoration', exploring the attribution of meaning to ecology, and considering 'restoration' as a signifier of a temporal end-state as well as a constructed pure, 'pre-influence' ecosystem. Symbolic semiosis in relation to the environment and ecology results in reconstruction of the signs or meanings attributed to the environment and manipulation of existing narratives. This is a process of creation and communication of ecological icons through a 'forced narrative'. The capacity of a decontextualised reinterpretation of symbolic relationships with the environment to create embedded cultural meaning depends on the strength of the narrative. However, where that forced narrative conflicts with value-laden human symbolic content in specific environments, cognitive dissonance results in opposition to the reconstruction of meaning. This analysis will focus in particular on the oppositions created by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It will demonstrate the assignment of values through eco-semiotics, leading to human influenced environments, and an oppositional symbolic semiosis creating and imposing a meta-level valuation of the environment.