Is economics of restoration helping with decision-making challenges? Insights guided by bibliometrics

Society is already seeing the ecological and economic benefits from restoration projects. However, the challenge is much bigger than the current efforts from ecologists and economists around the world. The Economics of Restoration is the interdisciplinary research field that is believed to have the necessary tools and instruments to solve this restoration gap, yet a better use and understanding of economic aspects and concepts are still needed. A bibliometric analysis of the field of economics of restoration was done in this study. Bibliometrics can offer insights on the intellectual structure of a discipline and thus indicate future paths for research development. The goal of this study was to identify important and influential economics of restoration research themes and key topics that will strengthen decision-making processes for restoration actions if better addressed in the future. The analysis reveals that few studies go beyond costs, lacking a full estimation of benefits. Economic concepts of uncertainty, public goods and specificity of natural capital are not well incorporated yet, and the relationship between governments and markets, as well as the one between communities and investments, require more attention to scale-up restoration worldwide. This study is believed to be the first one using bibliometrics to guide a discussion around economics of restoration and can be subsequentially replicated in other disciplines.