One definition for ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery and management of ecological integrity, where ecological integrity includes a critical range of variability in biodiversity, ecological processes and structures, regional and historical context and sustainable cultural practice.
This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends developing the capacity for predicting the response of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems and biodiversity to short- and long-term perturbations of the environment, and developing further restoration ecology.