A Critical Reflection on Nurturing Civic and Ethical Concerns for Environmental Value Sustainability: Revitalizing Restoration Project

7 A Critical Reflection on Nurturing Civic and Ethical Concerns for Environmental Value Sustainability: Revitalizing Restoration Project  Kahsu Abrha Belew Institution: Raya University, Maichew, Tigray, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/48-02 Publication date:May 31st 2019


Ethics and Environment
In all societies, environment is among the largest endowment to human beings. It needs the lion share of a state's total budget and giving valuing for it. However, at the same time, in most third world societies like Ethiopia, it is facing severe difficulties and crisis such as unwisely consumption of nature, anthropocentric (human centeredness) attitude upon nature, deniable of environmental ethics, among others. This state of affair is further eroded by the prevalence of low ethical standard in the valuing environment of states of this category.
Even though the problem is widespread across all levels of environment academia and the like, it is very much visible in Africa in general and horn of Africa in particular. In general, environmental issue can be for public as well as a private and ethical awareness /value for nature and practice does and should inform everything any institutions are and do. An institution that is consciously and deliberately ethically aware will play a valuable role in pursuing wider community and societal aims. Hence, in every dimension ethical perspective of nature/ respect nature as our mother should be enabled to handle the range of environmental dilemmas and being unconsciously they will face in an increasingly multicultural society with global dimensions.
Having a coherent and consistent set of policies and procedures in the form of a statement of ethical principles and behavior that is embedded in the culture of our perspective towards to nature can help our irrationality, the existing one-sided life style, and others with whom we deal, to think about, address and resolve ethical environmental utterances. My argument here is that to come across with valuing nature is simply a matter of institutionalized the thing because if it is institutionalized then it can be show what an environmental institution stands for, what it's phenomenal and nominal thinking of community can expect from it and what it might reasonably expect in return. In this concern, I notify some major points for consideration so as to realize valuing nature/environment as follows: Ethical issues arise in any aspect and all of an institution's operations from purchasing and estate management to research and teaching.
Every sector has defined their mission and values by Addressing ethical principles will help to ensure environmental problems and questions and values are put into practice like what Abraha Weatsibehas did 1 . This also encountering in to day to day running of the environmental/environmentalists institution so as to achieve its valuable ecology. Now a day in this particular place, there is an ethical relationship between human and nature, besides the value and moral status of human and nonhuman contents is fruitful.
It is up to individual institutions to determine what is and is not appropriate behaviour for their organizations. What is acceptable for one organization may be unacceptable to another -and both for entirely logical and legitimate reasons. Any ethical policy framework must evolve out of the institution's mission (for instance realization of valuing nature) and values. It must also be consistent with and work alongside existing ethics related environment.
Simply publishing, ejaculation of sensational words and advocating ethical standards as a framework will not ensure to sustain eco-environment. The framework needs to be put into practice through mother-child approach and recognize the value of nature across daily activities. Accordingly, ethics based environment may range from unethical and illogical consuming of nature to public interest revelation and from anthropocentric (human centered) to non-anthropocentric (non-human centeredness).

Environmental Restoration and Environmental Sustainability
Literally meaning, restoration is the art of mending, reworking nature to its normal condition if it has damaged once. As Hettinger justified "it has been proposed that nature restoration should be taken as a new environmental paradigm for the human relationship with nature and that this model should supplant the old environmental paradigm of preservation" (2008:1).
Therefore, environmental restoration sometimes called restoration project is a medicine for nature since it concerns on repair or restore the environment again. Philosophers of ethics didn't agree on it. Some ethicists argued that restoration project is meaningless rather than to fulfill the interest of human's (for example Robert Elliot and Eric Kas). In contrast, ethicists like Andrew Light restoration project is necessary if environmental scandals confront human's need. Accordingly, environmental philosophers can be classified in to two: (I) Pro environmental restoration such as Robert Elliot and Eric Katz. (II) Against environmental restoration like Andrew Light. Conversely, Robert Elliot's states that "analogous of art forgery could not produce values as the original one". It implies that, he denied Light's invalidity of restoration thesis and his analogous art though Light has distinguished between two sorts of restorations as follows: Malicious restorations, such as the kind described in the restoration thesis, and benevolent restorations, or those undertaken to remedy a past harm done to nature. Benevolent restorations, unlike malicious restorations, cannot serve as justifications for the conditions that would warrant their engagement (Light, 2003: 401). Therefore, the ultimate objective of Elliot was not for both restoration types, but with malicious restoration. For Light it is possible to recover nature if and only if produces good consequences. On the contrary, Elliot strongly believes that nothing can be found by if nature has been restored again. In this logic, Light is in a position to reject Elliot's assumption by arguing restoration project is one sided and problematic. Ethicist so called Eric Katz, the leading team of the anti-restorationists, perceives restoration as "The Big Lie:" and "A 'restored' nature is an artifact created to meet human satisfactions". Contrary, philosophers like Elliot and Katz suggested, a restoration thesis argues that (but fail) restore damage done and restore to health nature's injury and make nature whole again. Both environmental ethicists have criticized the notion of restoration thesis or restoration of environment, their arguments is as follows: Premise1. Restoration project fulfills the dream of human domination of nature. Premise2. Our mastery of nature shown by our ability to restore and repair degraded ecosystems. Premise3. A Restoration result is an artifact, not a natural object. Conclusion. Therefore, a restored area is anthropocentrically (human-centered) designed human artifact, because they were intentionally arranged or designed by humans.
Thus, this single argument clearly deduces that Katz and Light's idea is quite different. My interest is with Light's argument. In this sense, I want to show one empirical example that has been practiced restoration project in Northern Ethiopia, Tigray, Abreha Weatsbeha place. As we know ten-fifteen years ago, the Abreha Weatsbeha's communities have decided to move to another place because their place is too hard to survive (desert area). However, some people have been given another option than migrated. The option was that they should repair, restore their environment like trees will be replanted, the soil will be reproduced, and the species will be recreated. Finally, the restoration project was successful and effective, currently they lead their life in comfortable way and their leader has got numerous awards including the Rio international award. In this setting, Hettinger added that: Nature restoration has become the major competing paradigm for the protection of nature. Given increasing human alteration and degradation of nature, and greater awareness and understanding of these effects, attempts to restore degraded nature have become a key environmental goal (2008: 1). Moreover, in view of the Ethiopian context one can see the overwhelming resource of environmentalist culture, value system and history of ethical life the country is endowed with. Accordingly, with the departure of modern education system this all-encompassing indigenous knowledge of virtue was began to be yoked for creating ethical environmental friendship by different anthropocentric government's and regimes that came up to political domination to govern the state. History of environmental ethics clearly deduces the fact that every environmental advocacies exertion is to nurture civics and ethical concerns to environment so as to attain the value of it through restoration project in the Tigray region's history has got its own cons and pros. But now days there had been vigorous attempts being made in order to sustain ethical values in creating holistic relationship with the nature through formal ethical education.
Besides, anthropocentric approach of Ethiopian curriculum has to be changed so as to decline the first and for most enemy of Ethiopia which is poverty, besides it needs national curriculum modification in all levels of education pertinent to environmental concern because it concerns for all studies to supplementary arrangement to educate ethical nature concerns out of the formal educational system. Therefore, apart from the formal educational set up there is a tenacious need construct good logical reasoning devices by which there could be possibility to up hold ethical concern in the youth and the community at large. If so, I strongly believe that environment will be sustained and realized without contamination and manipulation.
Therefore, As Hettinger suggested in his paper the existing of environmental restoration is even though it has been delayed, however it can be taken as a final medicine to heal nature and to make healthy human/nature relation. In Abreha Weatsubeha, every people starting from children to elder have been allowed to restore their environment and finally they healed the damaged area. The lesson that can be taken energy of people can be applied either to create or to destroy nature. So, this argument forced to us to give recognition for potentiality of humans and the intrinsic value of nature, thus approaching Ethical Way! Is the first and for most remedies.
There is much of value in the practice of restoration and the restoration paradigm. Restoration can help heal nature and it needn't be anthropocentric. By stressing the importance of restoration, we acknowledge the massive damage humans have caused (and continue to cause) nature.
Restorationists have helpfully pressed the need for full human participation in nature and have cautioned against the dangers of apartheid-style preservationist (Hettinger, 2008: 2). This passage deduces that restoration project should not be taken as optional rather than it is matter of lifedeath. I shared Hettinger's idea that both surviving and damaging are always inseparable and inevitable because if we have accepted nature has its own intrinsic value then our mirror has to be changed. As a result, humans and non-humans going to be linked together and feeds each other ethically. Besides, I argue that the restored nature has intrinsic value as its previous one, not only original/unrestored nature has intrinsic value.

Conclusion
Since ethics and environment are existing substances with day-to-day activities, they required vigorous protection project. Currently, matters of ethics in environment are multitude. That is why an issue of all, particularly Medias, is in a position in narrating/reporting on either domestic or globally assertions of humiliations about the rationality of nature, xenophobia, unwisely consumption of sources; it makes common sense to accept the fact that there is a better way to conduct the affairs of men and women Namely The Ethical Way -this premises and conclusion tips the chore of those who have an ambition to conduct in environment to utterly encourage ethics in fortresses of restoration project if nature has damaged once either by human made or natural disaster, like what the people of Abreha Weatsibeha's have done.
The deduction of this paper is that the significant concept of environment is not realized in remoteness; rather it should be bases on ethical channels. Therefore, ethics based environment has various significances so as to reduce global scandals and challenges. Thus, I am in a position that it is unthinkable to realize the dignity of environment by excluding ethics because it is the crutch of it; this is the reason that I confidently recognized ethics as a nucleus of ecology. Accordingly, civic/ethical environment is-or should be-a prime concern in a state's initiative to build national consensus among its people. In this trend, there is no more important task than the development of an informed, effective, researchers and scientists, Environment has its own value and being an advocacy of it by applying mechanism of restoration project. As democracies are continued by citizens who have the requisite knowledge, skills, and dispositions, absent a reasoned commitment on the part of its citizens to the fundamental values and principles of democracy, a liberal and democratic society cannot succeed. It is