Monetary Assessment of Restored Habitats as a Support Tool for Sustainable Landscape Management in Lowland Cultural Landscapes

Surfaces directly influenced by mining and post-mining have risen to prominence in the field of restoration ecology. It is important to gain a better understanding of sustainable landscape management in lowland European cultural landscapes. Sand and gravel-pit areas were selected as study sites, where mining activities have been the main factor in land use over recent decades. The post-mining restoration of each area disturbed by mining processes was planned according to legally enforced technical and biological restoration protocols, as well as a specific document entitled the Biological Action Plan (BAP). The financial costs of BAPs for individual study sites were compared with the monetary value of habitats over three time periods. The economic evaluation was based on the assessment method of ecological harm to habitats carried out in Hesse (Germany). The results show that the restoration of target habitats after mining will establish and gradually develop new natural habitats with a higher monetary value than before mining, which become refuges of biodiversity in cultural landscapes. The results also indicate that the ecological restoration of post-mining areas can result in a higher monetary value of the restored natural habitats in comparison to the original habitats which were destroyed by mining.