A Traumatized Landscape: Why Ecological Restoration Begins with Cultural Memory
by El Habib Ben Amara
Ecological restoration is often approached as a technical challenge, but lasting recovery depends on restoring the cultural relationships that once sustained landscapes. Drawing on the traditional oasis communities of the Algerian Sahara, El Habib Ben Amara examines how modernization disrupted systems of water sharing, architecture, agriculture, and collective memory that had evolved over centuries. The article argues that environmental resilience cannot be rebuilt through engineering alone. Recovering local ecological knowledge and the social practices embedded within it is essential to restoring degraded ecosystems and creating sustainable futures rooted in both culture and place.