Improving regulatory outcomes for natural and nature based feature ecological restoration: from co-definition of barriers to co-design of best practices

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Abstract

Despite the promise of diverse benefits to biodiversity, resilience, water quality, and quality of life, natural and nature-based feature (NNBF) ecological restoration in the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary is often impeded by regulatory barriers. Arising from industrial regulations superimposed on restoration contexts, several overlapping agencies and sometimes-conflicting mandates, and long-standing differences in values, capacity, and scientific perspectives among regulators and restorers, this inefficient system stifles innovation, underappreciates dynamic urban socio-ecological systems, and renders NNBF project implementation unnecessarily difficult, slow, and costly. To understand these barriers’ roots and suggest detailed, actionable, and impactful practice-oriented ways to overcome them, our interdisciplinary team held two participatory workshops to identify hurdles and targeted solutions, as well as 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews to encourage additional detail and candor. Participants included federal, state, and municipal regulators, private, public, and non-profit restoration professionals, policy advocates, and academics. After assessments of how values, priorities, and motivations differ among regulators and restorers as well as benefits of practice-oriented approaches, we detail several interrelated regulatory barriers and responsive best practices synthesized from participants’ experience and expertise. These include improving collaborative structures, encouraging specialized treatment for NNBF restoration, including larger geographies and temporalities in project assessment using comprehensive plans, improved treatment of adaptive or experimental projects that embrace dynamic change, and the use of assistive bridge organizations to mitigate knowledge and capacity constraints. Consequently, we provide useful practice support for NNBF design, implementation, and regulation in this specific estuary and an assessment model usable across different socio-ecological and administrative contexts.

Publication Title

Socio Ecological Practice Research

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