Just nature recovery: A framework for centring multispecies and multi-dimensional justice in land management

Abstract

A rising interest in nature recovery has expanded the focus of conservation beyond protected areas to encompass a range of terrestrial and marine areas, from forests, fields, and farms, to cities, coasts and oceans. These expansions create new practical and theoretical contestations regarding how, why, and for whom nature recovery projects should be pursued. Such contestations are particularly pronounced in Scotland, a country with a long history of struggles over land rights, widespread loss of natural habitats, and highly unequal land ownership patterns. This paper examines how different framings of justice, and different approaches to nature recovery, interact to either entrench or redress past and present injustices in a range of Scottish examples. We argue that multispecies conceptions of justice that eschew human-centric framings provide a normative basis for recovering nature, while multi-dimensional framings of justice as distributive, procedural and recognitional help specify a range of requirements for social change. Both frames highlight injustices in current trajectories and the need for alternative approaches to deliver a just transition in nature recovery. We outline a three-step process for further research on justice issues and for developing policy recommendations. This entails 1) historicising contexts, 2) considering both multispecies and multi-dimensional understandings of justice, and 3) uncovering alternative nature recovery strategies that might more explicitly foreground justice considerations.