Global Restoration Network

This Week In The News

Hope in a Changing World
A film by the Environmental Education Media Project
focuses on restoration projects in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda

July 21, 2010

Regreening the Bare Hills
In Regreening the Bare Hills: Tropical Forest Restoration in the Asia-Pacific Region, David Lamb explores how reforestation might be carried out both to conserve biological diversity and to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. While both issues have attracted considerable attention in recent years, this book takes a significant step, by integrating ecological and silvicultural knowledge within the context of the social and economic issues that can determine the success or failure of tropical forest landscape restoration.

Business of Biodiversity
In the opening session, emphasis was placed on identifying the impacts and dependencies of businesses on biodiversity and what risks and opportunities could come from this. Setting sector specific targets and pricing were two opportunities that policy makers identified. Also, Hon. Caroline Spelman MP encouraged businesses to become early adopters of ecosystem restoration as they would end up on top because they’d have first mover advantage.

Research at Elkhorn Slough guides conservation and restoration efforts
Kerstin Wasson aims to keep that from happening. Wasson is an adjunct professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and research coordinator for the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. This dual role allows her to bring rigorous science to bear on habitat restoration efforts throughout Elkhorn Slough. Restoring the native oysters is just one aspect of a broad-based effort to do science-based ecosystem management at Elkhorn Slough.

World’s Mangroves Retreating At Alarming Rate: Study
The world’s mangroves are being destroyed up to four times faster than other forests, costing millions of dollars in losses in areas such as fisheries and storm protection, a report said Wednesday. The study commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and The Nature Conservancy said a fifth of mangroves had been lost since 1980 and that they continued to be destroyed at a rate of around 0.7 percent a year by activities such as coastal construction and shrimp farming.

The Carrifran Wildwood Story
In 2000, I attended the Society for Ecological Restoration’s conference held in Liverpool, England that year. In the exhibitors’ hall, I came across a display set up by Scotland’s Borders Forest Trust (BFT), a non-profit organization that had just adopted a grassroots volunteer coalition called the Wildwood Group which had the audacious idea of re-creating a native forest in a valley that had been denuded and devastated by sheep and goats for centuries. Staffing the BFT’s exhibit was Hugh Chalmers, whose title was Project Officer; Hugh was the on-the-ground man directly responsible for implementing the vision of the Wildwood Group. I was so captivated by Hugh’s description of the project that (1) his inspiring vision literally choked me up as we were speaking, and (2) I sent BFT all of my remaining British pounds when I left England, and I have been a BFT member and supporter ever since.
Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)

Nature Conservancy Releases “Green” Economic Stimulus
The Nature Conservancy is advocating that a portion of stimulus funding go toward restoring natural systems. Such investment provides human and ecological benefits. For example, restored freshwater marshes can act as a natural seawall, holding water in times of flood, retaining water in times of drought and filtering out pollutants. Coastal marshes and oyster reefs are nursery grounds for fish and buffer the land against storms. Recognizing that the stimulus will provide much needed investment in the nation’s roads, bridges, rails, dams, and levees, The Nature Conservancy is also calling for giving priority to hard infrastructure projects that are compatible with nature. Investing in these “green infrastructure” projects will ensure that stimulus investment will minimize additional environmental damage. Environmental restoration and green infrastructure projects would provide jobs for an array of Americans, including heavy equipment operators, surveyors, engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, hydrologists and even botanists who work in nurseries that offer local seedlings and other specialized plants for restoration

New Jersey: Baldpate Mountain Reforestation
This project will convert these fields to forest habitat by planting 1,660 native trees and shrubs (planting density of 200 per acre) and fencing field perimeters to avoid deer browsing on plantings and naturally recruited native trees and shrubs. Periodic control of invasive species and maintenance of exclosure fencing will occur as needed in 2011 and beyond.

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Welcome to the GRN

The Global Restoration Network (GRN), a project of the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER), offers the field of ecological restoration a new database and web-based portal to trustworthy and hard-to-find information on all aspects of restoration, from historic ecosystems and causes of degradation to in-depth case studies and proven restoration methods and techniques. The overriding mission of the GRN is to link research, projects, and practitioners in order to foster an innovative exchange of experience, vision, and expertise.

The GRN is fast becoming the central hub for ecological restoration – a vital resource for policymakers, professionals and communities, whether researching options for habitat restoration, writing a project proposal, coordinating volunteers, or looking for educational programs and funding. Perhaps the most exciting feature of the GRN is the database where you can make a specific query and find restoration case studies and annotated links to a wide variety of relevant resources including experts, organizations and literature. Here is a small sample of the links you will find in the GRN website and database.

CASE STUDIES

Alexander River Restoration Project, Israel
The Alexander River Restoration Project is Israel’s leading river restoration and was awarded the Thiess International Riverprize in 2003. Implemented by Israeli agencies, with cooperation and support from local Palestinian officials in an unprecedented show of solidarity, the project aims to restore a river severely degraded by untreated sewage and pollution from more than 70 sources–in both Palestinian and Israeli territory.

Restoration of the Mata Atlantica, Brazil
Instituto Terra is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 by Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and the renowned photographer Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado. It is located at the Bulcão Farm in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, and it covers an area of 676 hectares.

Mangroves Restoration in Andhra Pradesh, India
This project was launched in Andhra Pradesh with the aim of inducing concerted action towards conservation and sustainable management of the mangrove wetlands on the east coast of India. The restoration employed canal techniques, instead of simple plantation of seedlings, and a fish bone pattern of canals was utilized.

ORGANIZATIONS

Earth Restoration Service takes a proactive approach to ecosystem restoration worldwide, forming partnerships with community groups, charities, NGOs, governments and businesses in support of a broad range of environmental restoration projects.

Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration is a network of governments, organizations, communities and individuals who recognize the importance of forest landscape restoration and want to be part of a coordinated global effort.

European Centre for River Restoration supports the development of river restoration as an integral part of sustainable water management throughout Europe ensuring that projects will be more cost effective, more likely to succeed, and will encompass multifunctional objectives.

LITERATURE

Saltmarsh Restoration – Rebuilding Habitat with a Community Partnership
A recent project in the Tweed Estuary has shown that when the shared goal of committed stakeholders is the rehabilitation of a damaged saltmarsh ecosystem, then progress is definitely possible.

Sustainable River Restoration in Urban Streams
Based on a review of the literature, we identified candidate indicators of hydrologic alteration and ecosystem response that could be used to guide restoration. Using available biological and hydrologic data we tested candidate indicators to determine if flow-biology relationships could be identified and used as guidance in restoration programs.

The Restoration of Forests: Temperate Zone of China
The restoration of forests in the northeast and northern China, including the loess plateau, is of benefit to biodiversity conservation and the improvement of the natural environment.

VIDEO

Post Tsunami Mangrove Restoration in Sri Lanka
The video is part of the Global Nature Fund’s project to restore mangrove forests and livelihoods in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami of 2004.

Regrowing the Borneo Rainforest
By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans — and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

A River Reborn: The Restoration of Fossil Creek
The inspiring rebirth of a biologically critical river in Arizona is recounted in A River Reborn: The Restoration of Fossil Creek. The one-hour documentary examines the ecological effects of a dam and hydroelectric facility on the waterway and chronicles the 15-year effort that led to decommissioning.

Click on the logo below for some great videos of coastal and salt marsh restoration projects

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