©Danilo Lima, Agripalm Ambiental
The RRC database contains a wide variety of resources and publications related to ecological restoration, and we are actively working to expand this collection. It is our aim to serve as the principal clearinghouse for information and tools to support the work of researchers, practitioners, land managers, educators, students, and anyone else interested in restoration. Use the filter tool below to search the database by title, author, resource type, keyword, or any combination of these factors.
Although SER does review all entries in the database for relevance and quality, these resources have not been rigorously reviewed or extensively vetted in every case, and SER therefore makes no claim as to their accuracy or accordance with generally accepted principles in the field. The database is provided as a resource for visitors to the SER website, and it is ultimately left to the individual user to make their own determinations about the quality and veracity of a given publication or resource.
If there is a resource we missed, please let us know! We are interested in current books, articles, technical documents, videos, and other resources that are directly relevant to ecological restoration science, practice or policy, as well as resources treating the social, cultural and economic dimensions of restoration.
Lessons Learnt from 16 years of Restoring the Atlantic Forest at a Trinational Level: The Upper Paraná in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay
Abstract:Straddling Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (UPAF) ecoregion hosts a quarter of the remaining highly fragmented Atlantic Forest. Main threats are conversion to agriculture and pasture land. The ecoregion vision identified restoration at the core of the interventions. In both UPAF and the Serra do Mar, over 5,300 ha of Atlantic forests have been planted in eight watersheds since 2006 with WWF support. In Paraguay, the rate of deforestation has decreased between 82 to 95% since the baseline in 2003, thanks to the zero-deforestation law, first enacted in 2004; WWF supported restoration (planting and natural regeneration) of almost 15,000 ha. Jaguar numbers increased in the ecoregion by 160% between 2005-2018. Collaboration with local communities and actors has been essential for WWF and Vida Silvestre. Key lessons learnt are: 1 Lasting convening power of ecoregional planning with a shared biodiversity vision. 2 Transboundary FLR planning is effective for conservation, while implementation is decided at the national/local levels. 3 Implementation at multiple scales contributes to it. 4 Restoration is one of many landscape interventions. 5 Addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation is an essential component of FLR. 6 Diverse and innovative restoration strategies are needed in the context of ongoing deforestation. 7 Social movements, networks, partnerships, alliances and stakeholder platforms play a mobilizing and multiplier role for FLR.8 Permanent dialogue helps to maintain momentum and establish trust. 9 Strong civil society organizations are required.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Lessons learnt from 20 years of floodplain forest restoration in the Lower Danube
Abstract:The Lower Danube extends along 1000 km across Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine before it flows into the Black Sea. Decades of human modification of the natural landscape have left the islands, the river and its banks degraded. These modifications included conversion to agriculture, hybrid poplar plantations, introduction of nonnative invasive species, infrastructure, and pollution. Riparian forests, along the banks of the Danube are important habitats for wildlife, protect the riverbanks from erosion and act as a filter for water quality. In 2000, a joint declaration was signed by the Environment Ministers of Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova to establish a Lower Danube Green Corridor. This agreement commits the four countries to ensure preservation and restoration of valuable landscapes in lower Danube. Throughout the following two decades a series of projects have been implemented within this overarching framework. WWF’s involvement in forest landscape restoration in the region started at the turn of the 21st century. Activities focused on capacity building, policy work, removal of dykes and sources of degradation, trials on small plots to determine best methods for restoring the forest dynamics (field interventions, site preparation, removal of invasive species, active restoration). In this complex, multi-country context, where the fate of forests is not only dependent on humans, but also on the hydrological cycle, a number of lessons are highlighted. Lessons learned reflect various aspects of restoration – from advocacy and transboundary collaboration through on-the field practical experience and application of innovative restoration approaches to consideration of local socio-economic aspects.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Working Principles, Metrics, Challenges for Successful FLR Field Implementation
Abstract:Knowledge and experiences on forest landscape restoration (FLR) gathered by scientists, implementers and organizations are of upmost importance. Since 2018, WWF has been actively collecting lessons through a specific learning process. An “Experiences in Forest Landscape Restoration” series composed of an analysis of seven longterm (over 10 year-old) projects from Asia, Africa, South America and Europe took place. Today, as we are about to embark on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), the purpose of this presentation is to synthesise the findings, data and lessons, that have been collected through this series. Based on our results, we will discuss FLR working principles, metrics used for monitoring and evaluation, and lessons learnt. We highlight some key challenges for the Decade (monitoring, complexity, gaps). How to best define the landscape to restore? What kind of activities are the most frequently needed in FLR implementation? What kind of key performance indicators (KPIs) are used or needed to report to donors, to demonstrate and monitor impacts of FLR? This analysis across seven landscapes leads to 81 lessons learnt and 14 meta lessons.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Forest and Landscape Restoration in Latin America: the WWF-lead landscape approach to engagement and scaling up in the region
Abstract:The scale of global forest loss is staggering. The protection and sustainable management of ecosystems, as well as halting deforestation and conversion are well agreed upon measures. However, the current area of natural ecosystems is not enough to bend the curve for biodiversity, climate and human wellbeing. WWF is catalysing the concordant, key acceleration of forest and landscape restoration (FLR), already underway, to recover these values in degraded and deforested landscapes through an internal platform called the FLR Transformation Initiative in Latin America. Countries in the region have made commitments to restore over 50 million hectares though the 20×20 Initiative, contributing to the Bonn Challenge goal. Yet, there is a gap between discourse and action. Enabling conditions are lacking, spanning a wide range of areas, from political will to on the ground capacity, from financial resources to plant availability. WWF works across Latin America with in-country presence in 14 countries addressing historical drivers of ecosystem degradation, governance, markets and finance, shifting these paradigms for transformative change to scale up action in our region. Our Initiative integrates other key strategies, such as protection, sustainable use and reducing conversion. WWF´s presence, landscape approach and stakeholders engagement works to catalyse and leverage opportunities across scales for the local to the national to the regional to international. Relatively stable sociopolitical frameworks in the region, though not always inclined to restoration, provide a platform with decision-makers where FLR can prosper supported by this multi-stakeholder landscape approach.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Steering WWF´s Forest Landscape Restoration towards the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Abstract:WWF´s Forest Practice has outlined three forest conservation outcomes and one of them is to achieve 350 million hectares of forest landscapes under restoration by 2030. Clearly, it is understood that this can only be achieved by positioning the WWF´s networks as part of joint efforts with a wide set of stakeholders and with on the implementation of effective strategies towards the Bonn Challenge goals. WWF has been, since 2000, working with partners around the world to help create and accelerate forest landscape restoration (FLR). Aiming to upscale our organization impact and engagement, we joined the AFR100 Initiative, the Initiative 20×20, the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration and about to join the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Complementary, we are developing internal initiatives to regionally structure our country work around FLR, named FLR in Africa Initiative and the Transformational Initiative in FLR in Latin America focusing around strengthening policy and enabling governance; enabling finance and markets mechanisms and delivering FLR on the ground. An active community of practice and innovation has been created with more than 250 employees. Across the network a diverse set of actions are developed, for instance, the Trillion Tree joint venture with WCS and Birdlife, and several studies and publications. We expect that during the next 10 years our work will continue to play a strategic role in the global FLR agenda and directly contribute to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Trillion Trees: working in partnership to achieve a vision of a world where forests are expanding, not shrinking
Abstract:Ecosystem restoration holds the promise of helping address the world’s biggest challenges: limiting dangerous climate change, tackling the biodiversity crisis, and securing sustainable livelihoods of a growing global population. Thus far, 62 countries have now pledged to restore lands under the Bonn Challenge initiative, with restoration pledges covering over 170 million hectares, and countries are continuing to sign up. However, while pledges can be made easily, delivering high quality ecosystem restoration is difficult in practice. The participation of diverse stakeholder groups and a long-term vision of sustainability in the landscape – backed by appropriate finance – is critical for ecosystem restoration to reach its potential. Trillion Trees is a joint venture by three of the world’s largest conservation organisations, founded on the ambition to help protect and restore one trillion trees by 2050. We contribute to the global effort on forest restoration – alongside priority effort to halt deforestation and improve protection of forest landscapes – with the aim to emphasise multiple benefits that can be delivered through restoration when done well. This presentation will draw on the experiences of working in tropical forest landscapes, to outline the importance of bringing together partnerships to deliver ecosystem restoration, and framing restoration initiatives within a wider vision of sustainable landscapes.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Understanding possible role of Businesses in FLR. The example of Tree Planting by Businesses in France, Switzerland and the UK
Abstract:Today, companies are pledging to plant millions, billions and even a trillion trees. Trees serve many purposes including eco-marketing. There is much appeal in the positive act of planting a tree. We carried out research among the Global Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in France, Switzerland and the UK to understand, characterise and quantify, where possible, their tree planting initiatives. We carried out a comprehensive desktop review, and interviewed two companies, two funding instruments, one project developer, one enabler and one implementer. Our findings show that overall a total of 58 out of 62 companies fund tree planting. A total of at least 190 million trees were reported to have been planted between 2000 and 2018 by the 58 companies analysed. There are several other actors along the ’tree planting chain’ including brokers that act as intermediaries between the companies and those carrying out tree planting, financial mechanisms, verifiers and certifiers in the case of certified schemes, and implementing NGOs or communities on the ground. A typology is proposed based on the findings. Our research highlights that there is little or no evidence that companies pay enough attention to the ultimate purpose of tree planting, to the landscape within which these efforts take place, or to the role of trees in a wider perspective: the emphasis is clearly on the number of trees planted. Four recommendations are proposed to channel available funding, infrastructure, social and environmental responsibility and energy towards tree planting that contributes to real Forest Landscape Restoration projects.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
WWF’s FLR in Africa Initiative: Catalysing 9 African countries to respond to the Bonn Challenge and deliver transformational restoration by 2030
Abstract:Land and forest fragmentation and degradation have reached alarming levels as global forest loss between 2015 and2020 has occurred at 10 million hectares (ha) per year with a net forest loss of 7 million ha per year from 2010-2020. In Africa, net forest loss exceeded 4 million ha per year between 2000 and 2005 and approximately 3.9 million ha per year between 2010 and 2020. WWF is setting up a transformational Forest Landscape restoration in Africa Initiative, seeking to unlock large scale implementation of AFR100 commitments in 8 countries namely Cameroon, DRC, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and seeking to add a new commitment from Zambia. The initiative is premised on working on three pillars; governance, policy and institutional frameworks, finance and market enablers and delivering large scale implementation on the ground to strengthen the existing political momentum on restoration in the selected countries with the goal of enabling governments in target countries to deliver with partners at least 50% of their AFR100 commitments by FY 2027. The Initiative seeks to strategically contribute to the Bonn Challenge and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in 9 countries. Details of the initiatives’ areas of action and innovations are presented and discussed.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Beyond tree plantation: Atlantic Forest restoration with Misiones`s local communities
Abstract:Misiones`s (Argentina) maintains half of its original Upper Parana Atlantic Forest distribution. However, it`s loss and fragmentation is an important issue that can affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and diminish ecosystem services for human well-being. Seeking to improve local communities’ livelihoods, recover watersheds` forests, and establishing biological corridors, in 2008 Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina started a restoration project with local farmers in Andresito and recently in San Pedro. These are key areas to restore, as they connect remaining core areas of the Optimal Landscape for Jaguar Conservation. Since quality and quantity water was one of the main problem to be addressed by the families, from 2015 work focused on improving water access for domestic and agricultural use. As to offer an alternative sustainable income, we helped a group of local farmers to produce and sell vegetables under better agricultural practices, connecting them directly with hotels and restaurants. From 2019, aiming to increase sapling availability and building capacities on local communities, we are working with Agricultural Family Schools to consolidate tree nurseries through support, technical advice and students and teachers` training. This can increase awareness in future land use decision makers (small scale farmers), and generate a potential economical income to the school. As a result of more than 10 years we have achieved 308 ha directly restored (101 families), and built 10 water supply systems and 31 springs upgraded (281 families). Forest Landscape Restoration is not just about planting trees, it`s a social agreement and needs to be addressed with a landscape approach.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Conservation of jaguars in the tri-national corridor – The importance of corridors for one of the last populations of the specie in the Atlantic Forest
Abstract:Solitary, beautiful and elusive, the jaguar is the biggest native feline to roam the Americas. Their historic distribution once ranged from southwestern United States to southern Argentina, but over the past 50 years the jaguar has lost over half of their original habitat, and several populations are considered critically endangered, including the population from Atlantic Forest. The lands originally covered by the Atlantic Forest are today predominantly a human-modified landscape, and the jaguars have significantly decreased in this region. WWF Brazil, WWF Paraguay and Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina drives the conservation efforts of this landscape. The objectives of the program is that the jaguars populations increase; At least two jaguar corridors are consolidated and habitat fragmentation is reduced; Deforestation is reduced, the availability of jaguar´s prey is improved; The number of human-jaguar conflict incidents is reduced and; Poaching levels are reduced. The project is implemented partly by the coordinating institutions and partly by local partner institutions. Studies are carried out to monitor the populations of jaguars and their prey, as well as surveys and monitoring of conflict areas, and actions to mitigate them. The data resulting are used to guide the planning processes of restoration programs, prioritizing areas of use of jaguars, especially when they enable the connection between protected areas. The latest results from population censuses are encouraging, as well as the reduction in cases of conflict, and the trend is that with the next years we will have even better and even richer results to expand conservation impacts.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Key lessons learned for the future of forest landscape restoration of Upper Parana Ecoregion/Atlantic Forest
Abstract:Between 1998 and 2003, WWF-Brasil, WWF-Paraguay and Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina brought together more than 70 institutions and experts to define an ‘ecoregion vision’ for the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (UPAF), producing a solid document that was to serve as the foundation for future interventions. Four implementation phases followed, with restoration at the core of the interventions.
Both institutions have collaborated with numerous actors, from national governments to local farmers and indigenous communities, as well as other NGOs, private sector and scientific bodies. Capacity building has centred on improving knowledge about both the ecosystem and ways of restoring it. Tenure, policies, informal decision-making processes and linking global targets to on the ground action have been important governance issues explored and addressed in forest landscape restoration (FLR) in the UPAF. Key lessons learned emerged from this work and are inspiring the Trinational Alliance for the Atlantic Forest Restoration (TAFR). TARF is a multisectoral movement, created in 2019, that aims to promote the articulation of different actors and public, private and civil institutions in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in favor of restoring the UPAF. The future of UPAF depends on articulated investments and actions, aligned with this integrated vision, between institutions interested in FLR in the three countries. Based on TARF´s stakeholders, these efforts need to support continued capacity building and technical exchange, forest restoration implementation and monitoring based on strong geospatial databases, strengthening of restoration supply chain and creation/strengthening of institutional arrangements that can upscale co-investments and the impacts on UPAF.
Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Mate Project: Market Access and Territorial Empowerment
Abstract:The MATE Project, financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and led by WWF in Paraguay, responds to the need to take advantage of the agroforestry systems implemented in the Atlantic Forest of the Upper Paraná and to generate opportunities for the cultivation and industrialization of yerba mate and medicinal plants, thus giving added value to the production of beneficiary rural families and promoting access to local and international markets that demand products that are safe, environmentally friendly and biodiversity friendly; and climate-smart. The project has sought to strengthen the productive independence of the rural and indigenous populations, especially women and young people, by training them and facilitating their work with a friendly approach in an area of very high local and international demand (yerba mate), with an added value that allows for more competitive prices.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Participatory construction the Atlantic Forest Restoration Plan in the Upper Paraná Ecoregion
Abstract:Ecological restoration has been gaining ground as a strategy to mitigate impacts resulting from landscape fragmentation. In 2020, with the partnership of local actors and various specialists, the Atlantic Forest Restoration Plan in the Upper Paraná Ecoregion was built, from the perspective of restoring the forest landscape, and with the objectives of forming corridors for biodiversity, increasing the extent of restored areas and foment the production chain restoration. The Ecoregion covers the border areas between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, where efforts for institutional articulation in Network take place. The Plan’s, covers an area is 2,816,120 hectares. The adopted methodology provided for wide social participation, two initial face-to-face workshops were held to present the project and indicate areas for restoration, with thematic virtual workshops on longdistance trails and ecotourism as an opportunity for restoration; species conservation; and use of GIS techniques in the elaboration of restoration. And virtual meetings for prospecting areas. The result of the project, even in a virtual way due to the pandemic scenario, was the prospection of almost 700 hectares for restoration and the involvement of 155 people representing 61 institutions. Some of these areas are located in Conservation Units, settlements and private properties. Ecological restoration will foster ecotourism activities, environmental education, the public use of protected areas, the implementation of agroforestry systems, the recovery of headwaters and areas of permanent preservation, as well as the connectivity of areas. In 2021, the Plan enters a new phase, the restoration of 60 hectares in a pilot project!
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Trinational Alliance for the Atlantic Forest Restoration stakeholders’ engagement as a path to FLR long-term success
Abstract:Considered a hotspot for tropical restoration (Brancalion et al., 2019), the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (UPAF) ecoregion is a strategic territory situated in the Atlantic Forest transboundary region, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. Since the 2000s, institutions have concentrated efforts in this region to halve deforestation and favor conservation in this highly fragmented landscape. Created in 2019, the Trinational Alliance for the Atlantic Forest Restoration (TAFR) arose from the necessity of one ecoregion common vision that connects planning at regional, national, and international level. It is a multisectoral movement that aims to promote articulation of different actors and public, private, and civil institutions in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay in favor of restoring UPAF. Although still in its initial phase, the TAFR already engaged 45 institutions from the tree countries. To tackle major challenges within the UPAF, these institutions are willing to collaborate to public policies strengthening at national and trinational levels, and to favor information exchange. Advances include stakeholder engagement, that has been promoted even in the COVID challenging period, whereas 127 actors engaged in the first virtual TAFR workshop. Also, the Geospatial group is creating an integrated vision for the landscape by using geospatial intelligence to favor landscape connectivity and has already identified an area of 1.65M hectares that legally need to be restored. The TARF focuses on bold strategies that include lasting institutional arrangements and connects multiple scales, creating a pathway to successfully achieve the ambitious restoration goals in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Metrics for seeding success revealed from intensive monitoring of the 2015 Soda megafire
Abstract:Seeding of burned sagebrush steppe rangelands in the western US is among the largest restoration efforts underway globally, but success in successfully regenerating desired perennials has been mixed. Monitoring of the large areas burned and treated has been sparse. Here we show considerable insights from the first intensive measurement of megafire that received extensive seedings, plantings, and other restoration efforts such as herbicide applications and rest from grazing – all applied in an adaptive management framework. Up to 2000 management monitoring plots and >500 additional research plots were monitored annually for 5 years over 113,00 ha following the 2015 Soda Wildfire, using a newly developed monitoring approach that enabled sampling many sites in a short time period. The intensive monitoring revealed more establishment than has typically been reported in previous studies, and the fine grain of the monitoring revealed critical heterogeneity in seeding outcomes. Adequate monitoring and consideration of these “hot spots” in time or space for plant recovery in devising metrics for seeding success may lead to different perspectives on the outcomes of restoration seedings.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Native Seed Production Tools to Procure, Increase and Distribute Source Identified Seed via Seed Transfer Zones at an Ecoregional Scale in the Western, U.S.
Abstract:The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 covers the period from 2020 to 2030 calling for an increase in funding and native plant materials to implement projects to restore ecosystems and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss. Globally, however, a shortage of native plant material still exists, frequently precluding successful restoration efforts. Providing seed supply chain options through seed selection and procurement programs relies on information sharing and coordination in project planning to increase the availability of native seed. A seed acquisition model in the Western US is helping to meet long-term Source Identified native seed needs necessary to create diverse, resilient systems to adapt to climate change and environmental disturbances. The Native Grass and Forb Seed Increase Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract is designed to provide restoration practitioners with genetically appropriate native seed by Seed Transfer Zone (STZ). The seed development process begins with seed collections made using the Seeds of Success protocol. This seed is processed, stored, managed, and sent out for certification through the BLM’s partnership with the US Forest Service Bend Seed Extractory and the Oregon State Seed Certification Program. These Source Identified seed lots are then distributed to a vendor for seed increase. Since the inception of this seed procurement tool in 2019 vendors have been awarded over 5 million USD in seed production contracts and seed lots are planned for delivery starting in 2021.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Resiliency and Regulation: Creative Native Plant Revegetation
Abstract:Regulatory agencies often require specific revegetation benchmarks as a component of a construction project’s environmental permitting for soil stabilization, scenic viewshed requirements, stream bank stabilization, etc. Past practices had mostly focused on the use of quickly germinating annual plants that may or may not have been native to the project area. Over the past two decades, our unit has established strong partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to de-couple the revegetation activities from the construction contracts of their projects. Here I will discuss our unique partnerships that have greatly increased the use of native plants, collected at hyper-local levels, to revegetate highly disturbed sites. Through this innovation, we facilitate both resilient native plant communities and regulatory needs. I will provide three project examples of how, with a little creativity, native revegetation efforts can work together with regulatory requirements.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Restoration plant material development in the Great Basin region of the United States – A History and Comparison of Research Approaches
Abstract:The Great Basin region of the United States has a long history of large-scale revegetation and restoration seedings that require seed amounts well in excess of what would be available through direct wildland collections. To meet this seed need a number of research programs have arisen that develop plant materials suited to agronomic production and large-scale use. A few of these programs have existed for nearly a century. For much of this time only a handful of approaches to plant material development were implemented, focused primarily on selecting for sources and traits that supported seed production and ungulate forage value. However, additional development approaches have been established more recently that broaden the range of options for seed producers and restoration practitioners. These include more systematic source selection through the use of seed transfer zones and phylogeography, and a greater focus on traits that support long-term population persistence and growth in the wild. This talk will focus on the history of plant material development in the Great Basin and compare across approaches within the context of current production and restoration goals.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Seeds of Success: a conservation and restoration investment in the future of US lands
Abstract:Seed collection programs curate valuable genetic material to support native plant restoration, land management, and research. Collections include plant species important for wildlife, pollinators, and indigenous people. It is important to assess seed collection efforts to ensure they will support current and future needs. Seeds of Success (SOS) is a national program, led by the Bureau of Land Management, whose seed collections provide opportunities to understand change in natural populations and that are a critical repository of native plant genetic material for conservation and future use (Figure 1). We assessed the efforts of the SOS program by asking how many SOS sites have burned since seed collection and performing an in-depth analysis of 14 native forb species that are included in the SOS collections and are important for restoration. We identified 662 fires burning on 631 collection sites, as well as an increase in the burning of collection sites starting in 2011. Our focal species analysis found that many collections come from the warmest and driest portions of their range; however, further work could improve the alignment of the environmental conditions at collection sites with conditions at locations of planned or implemented restoration seeding activities. Appropriately selecting priority species and populations for seed collection and restoration is important for achieving conservation objectives and the future health of US lands depends on our present seed collection and seed banking activities.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Advancing natural capital thinking through Ecosystem Accounting: opportunities and barriers
Abstract:Natural capital thinking provides a framing for linking economic and human activity to the environment. It can place in context both our dependence on the environment and our impacts on it and do so in a way which supports links to standard approaches to decision making. Thus, natural capital thinking encourages us to see the economy and society in which we live as nested within the environment and hence the environment must be an integral part of the way in which we take decisions. While the general principles of and motivations for natural capital thinking are long established, they have not been described in a consistent way and many well motivated initiatives have not gained sufficient traction such that natural capital thinking has been mainstreamed. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) is gaining prominence as a broadly accepted conceptual and methodological framework to record and analyze people’s use of ecosystems. Through its origins in official statistics, SEEA EA provides a means to institutionalise natural capital thinking and embed a common language around natural capital thinking. In turn this provides the opportunity to draw together the variety of initiatives and achieve a level of awareness and scale that has not been possible to date. This presentation works through the evolution and framing of the SEEA EA and its links to the general body of work on natural capital thinking. From this base it then provides examples of how SEEA EA has been applied to decision making and hence demonstrates the potential of common approaches to natural capital thinking to contribute to the mainstreaming integrated decision making about the environment. Finally, the presentation considers a range of opportunities to advance natural capital thinking using the SEEA EA framing as the starting point including in the corporate sector and through the consideration of multiple capitals. Barriers to advancement are also considered.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Natural capital accounting to inform peatland restoration in Ireland: learnings from the INCASE project
Abstract:The INCASE (Irish Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments) project is piloting the UN System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) – Ecosystem Accounting (EA) at catchment scale in Ireland. This involves collating a range of environmental data to map contrasting catchments, each of which comprise a diversity of ecosystems including grasslands, croplands, peatlands, heathlands, woodlands, forests, coastal, freshwater and urban systems. As human pressures increase as a result of growing population / density and/or changes in land-use, there are resultant effects on ecosystems. Mapping the extent, type and condition of ecosystems in each catchment, and relating the stocks of natural capital to the flows of services and benefits over accounting periods can inform better decision making and support sustainable development. An emerging feature of the work to date, is the worsening ecological condition of peatlands as a result of longterm use for energy and fuel, and as land for agriculture and afforestation. In Ireland, agriculture remains the predominant land-use, having a significant influence on both ecosystem extent and condition nationally, while dependent on EU policies and global markets. National climate policy highlights the carbon costs of increasing the intensive nature of agricultural practices, and this is reflected in policies relating to afforestation and peatland restoration targets to offset national agricultural GHG emissions. We explore how natural capital (ecosystem) accounting can inform policy trade-offs between agriculture, forestry, peatland use and climate action to effect restoration of degraded peatlands for climate, water and biodiversity.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
The Natural Capital Project combining science, technology, and partnerships that enable people and nature to thrive
Abstract:After several international discussions seeking to link the concept of natural capital to the science and practice of ecological restoration, a large group of natural and social scientists, associated with SER, published Restoring Natural Capital: Science, Business and Practice (Island Press) in 2007. Restoring Natural Capital (RNC) is a process consisting of four elements, 1) ecological restoration and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, both natural and cultural; 2) reduction of the negative impacts of production systems and 3) of cities, resource extraction and transport; and, equally critical as all the foregoing, 4) promotion of education and communication to increase awareness of the importance of natural capital and ecosystem services. From this RNC group we evolved the concept of a “family of restorative activities”, to provide guidelines for the large-scale restoration that the UN Decade on Restoration, and other international initiatives, propose. This ‘family’ maps well onto the Restorative Continuum, as described in SER International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration. Because of the multiple, yet connected, benefits derived from restoration we then developed a transdisciplinary, multi-cultural framework (Ecohealth), focusing on the interface of RNC and human health. The RNC approach, and the related concept of ecosystem health, in synergy with essential input from public health professionals and medical doctors, as well as urban and landscape planners, can make both the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and UN Decade for Action on the Sustainable Development Goals, much more effective and attractive, both to broad publics and to policy makers. We present several case studies from Africa, Australasia and elsewhere, and discuss the need for networking to create an agenda for action for the future.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
The Mid Atlantic Regional Seed Bank: A Case Study in Actualizing the National Seed Strategy
Abstract:The Mid Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARSB) is a program of the NYC Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC) the nation’s oldest and largest municipal native plant nursery. It has been a production nursery since 1994 and a bulk seed producer since 2006. It has operated as an Active Seed Bank for short- to mid-term storage since 2006 and has been a partner of Seeds of Success since 2008. In 2012 it created MARSB to fully participate within SOS as a regional seed banking partner. Many of these programs and other activities of MARSB closely align and further the objectives of the National Seed Strategy (NSS) and demonstrate how a partner can serve as a regional seed banking hub to facilitate cooperative native plant material (NPM) development and related goals.
Since its inception MARSB has partnered with federal, state, tribal, local and nonprofit groups across the midAtlantic states on regional seed collection and banking efforts. It has participated in a 3-year coastal seed collection program, collected ash, viburnum, orchid, and hemlock seed for research and conservation, has held numerous seed collection workshops for participating regional partners and to develop a cadre of volunteer seed collectors. In 2017 it conducted a comprehensive survey of NPM users east of the Mississippi. In 2021 it will begin systematic ecoregional seed collection of 18 keystone species across NY State for NPM development by state agencies and others. I will discuss the development efforts that formed MARSB, what has worked and what its future goals are.
Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Seeding the Future
Abstract:We have seen significant progress in implementing the National Seed Strategy from 2015-2020. Over 440 partners invested more than $160 million in about 500 projects across the United States. Over 235 scientific reports and articles were written on native seed development and use. Almost 9,000 native seed collections were made. Thousands of native seed crops were developed in more than 32 eco-regions, and 21 regional seed partnerships were engaged in native seed development. Over 17 million sagebrush seedlings were grown and planted. Ultimately, over 10 million acres of land were restored to resiliency. Challenges to fully implement the Strategy continue to exist, such as the shortage of botanical expertise in both state and federal government agencies to drive the effective implementation of the Strategy and the shortage of farmers who want and know how to grow locally adapted native seed. Additionally, botanical education and training are declining at universities. However, we have reason to be hopeful here in the US. We are coordinating research-driven native seed production; we have the National Academy of Sciences conducting a National Assessment of Native Seed Needs and Capacities; and we have a United Nations’ Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. I anticipate more federal government agencies will be involved in implementing the Strategy; I anticipate more proactive communication on the Strategy, both internal to agencies and external to farmers and seed growers. Stronger collaboration and training are key to harnessing momentum to get the right seed in the right place at the right time.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Assessing supply and demand for native seed in the United States
Abstract:The U.S. National Seed Strategy for Restoration and Rehabilitation, released in 2015, fosters interagency collaboration between federal agencies related to the acquisition and use of native seed for restoration. The Seed Strategy was drafted by the Plant Conservation Alliance, a group of 12 federal agencies and 399 non-federal cooperators. The first of the four goals in the Seed Strategy is to identify and quantify seed need and availability in the U.S. Federal agencies often turn to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) for impartial scientific advice to inform policy-making. The Bureau of Land Management asked NASEM to conduct a national assessment to improve efforts to increase the diversity and quantity of native seeds in the marketplace, which are often in short supply, particularly in bad fire years. In 2020 NASEM released their interim report describing the structure of the supply chain, factors increasing the need for native seed, and plans for gathering additional data about drivers of purchasing choices and capacity of the native seed market. The major findings will be reviewed in this presentation, including observations that there is often minimal overlap between the seed that is desired and the seed that is available for restoration, and that seed choices do not always support restoration success and outcomes do not always inform choices.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Science-based Approach for Selecting the Right Seed for the Right Place at the Right Time
Abstract:Large-scale environmental degradation requires science-based solutions for guiding ecological restoration. A goal of the U.S. National Seed Strategy is to provide genetically appropriate seed and improve technologies for native seed production and restoration. Ecoregions across the U.S. share approaches to meet these goals, yet challenges unique to each impose distinctly different methods. The Mojave Desert is perhaps the most challenging to restore because of myriad human-caused disturbances and the infrequent combinations of precipitation and temperature that limit natural regeneration, likely accentuated with a warming/drying climate. Through our diverse partnerships, we first identified priority plant taxa for restoring habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise – an umbrella species for the ecoregion – and summarized life-history, pollinator associations, and propagation techniques for informing seed collection, storage, and production. For select species, we use marker-based landscape genetics to delineate seed zones and provide seed transfer guidelines defining appropriate planting areas for different populations. For other species, we developed a generalized and accessible web application, Climate Distance Mapper (https://usgs-werc shinytools.shinyapps.io/Climate_Distance_Mapper), which matches seed sources to restoration sites under current and future climates. As we incorporate other species, landscape genetic models increasingly illustrate that temperature gradients are key drivers of genetic variability in the ecoregion, even across contrasting growth forms. In parallel with landscape genetics, multiple common gardens are uncovering fitness costs associated with seed transfer and providing insights into the strength of locally adaptive responses. Furthermore, novel seeding and outplanting approaches using adapted plant materials are determining how seed predation and seedling herbivory can affect restoration outcomes.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
US National Seed Strategy Goal 3: Decision Tools for Managers
Abstract:Goal 3 of the US National Seed Strategy addresses development of tools to enable managers in making informed decisions in all phases of restoration, from seed planning, selection, and production through project implementation and monitoring. This presentation focuses on Goal 3 progress in a critical but often overlooked facet of successful restoration: seed sourcing tools and protocols for ensuring the availability and use of adapted planting material for current and projected future climates. Over the last decade, land managers and researchers have collaborated in genetic studies of key restoration species to create species-specific seed zones within which plant materials can be moved with little risk of maladaptation. For the many restoration species still lacking empirical seed zones, generalized provisional seed zones have been developed using climate data (e.g., winter minimum temperature and aridity) along with ecoregional boundaries to delineate areas that have similar climates but differ ecologically. SeedZone Mapper (https://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/threat-map/TRMSeedZoneData.php) is a dynamic online catalogue of available seed zone information, providing end-users quick access to maps and GIS data for seed sourcing and outplanting activities. To ensure seed sources are well adapted to changing climate conditions, the Seedlot Selection Tool (https//seedlotselectiontool.org/sst) and the Climate Smart Restoration Tool (climaterestorationtool.org/csrt/) are powerful new analytical tools for matching seed sources with planting sites under near- and longer-term climate projections. This snapshot of Goal 3 accomplishments illustrates the utility of the National Strategy in advancing effective seed planning and use and improving the availability of adapted seed supplies in the US commercial market.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Fostering progress as a collaborative effort
Abstract:The fourth goal of the National Seed Strategy is aimed at strengthening existing interactions and broadening connections to support a collaborative and ongoing informed effort. Key elements of this goal include developing internal and external communications for various audiences; incorporating Strategy actions into agency policies and programs; and reporting progress on implementation to agency leadership and other collaborators. To support common messaging across multiple federal agencies and hundreds of partners, a small interagency team of outreach specialists developed a Communications Toolkit aimed at two broad audiences – public-facing outreach and federal in-reach that could be tailored to agency employees and leadership. Capitalizing on existing programs and products and focused on key actions and outcomes that will benefit all partners, the plan helped coordinate additional communications activities and products among the partner agencies and with new audiences outside our traditional fields of study or partnership base. Success stories, lessons learned, and recommendations for improvements are fundamental to building momentum and gauging progress. Incorporating Strategy actions into agency policies and programs is among our biggest challenges and greatest accomplishments. Tracking progress and maintaining momentum is both complicated and informed by engaging with new partners, responding to changing national priorities, and adjusting to agency staff turnover. Building on our successes and addressing challenges will be integral to informing next steps.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
A Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands: Improving Wetland Conservation and Restoration to Meet Climate and Biodiversity Crises
Abstract:Despite establishment of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), and many wetlands conservation and restoration efforts at national and sub-national levels, wetland loss and degradation continue apace, and are part of a larger trend in ecosystem and biodiversity loss and degradation. The current paradigm for conservation of wetlands is failing to meet stated goals. In the context of climate destabilization, the need to reverse these trends is urgent. Often led by local and Indigenous peoples, a global rights of Nature movement is shifting the ethical and legal paradigm for the human-Nature relationship. As wetland and restoration professionals, how can we respond to larger trends? A group of wetland and climate scientists, through the SWS Climate Change & Wetlands Initiative and Ramsar Section, proposes a Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands with the goal of shifting our relationship with wetland ecosystems. Acknowledging inherent rights of wetlands and their legal personhood, as Indigenous people have done for millennia, and as many scientists and philosophers have done throughout history, returns to values and modes of thinking that modernity has typically pushed to the margins. In reconsidering our place in the community of beings making up the Earth community, we can restructure our relationships with wetlands. By embracing relational values with Nature, such as reciprocity, gratitude, responsibility, and acknowledgement of the personhood of Nature we shift decision-making away from exploitation, depletion, degradation and loss, and towards real conservation, restoration, re-wilding and remembering our integrated and relational presence as a part of Nature.
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program
Cultural, local community and Indigenous peoples’ issues for a Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands
Abstract:Much of the recent growth in contemporary formal recognition of the rights of nature draws on improved understandings about the belief systems and traditional practices of, Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). The cultural and linguistic heritage of IPLCs contributes to the world’s diversity. Their knowledge and practices have enhanced respect for the environment and natural resources, often offering models of sustainable approaches to water security, food security, health and well-being. Rights of wetlands can be an important component of enlightened and holistic approaches of this kind, which see the human species as part of the ecosystem rather than apart from it. Increasing evidence suggests that land demarcated as Indigenous Lands protects the natural environment through reduced rates of wetland degradation and deforestation, less habitat conversion and lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to surrounding areas. Traditional knowledge and management practices often play a significant role in protecting crucial habitats and the socioecological systems they support. The United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples addresses the most significant issues affecting indigenous peoples – their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. A declaration of wetland rights needs to fit with this philosophy, and to support the wisdom and rights of IPLCs with respect to the landscape and their relationship with wetlands. This paper sets out some key ingredients of the required approach
Resource Type:Conference Presentation, SER2021Publication Date: 2021
Pre-approved for CECs under SER's CERP program