Resource Database

The critical importance of nurseries for meeting ecosystem restoration goals

Global leaders, through the Bonn Challenge, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and other programs, have pledged to restore millions of hectares in the near future. To achieve these unprecedented and ambitious goals, millions of established plants are required. Natural regeneration and direct seeding may partially achieve that need, but have limited efficacy in areas with environmental stresses, animal damage, and seed scarcity. Thus, high-quality, nursery-grown seedlings can be critical for providing plant material needed to create healthy, functional, and resilient ecosystems. Well-managed plant nurseries also serve as a hub of local plant expertise, help ensure genetically appropriate plants are used for specific outplanting sites and support sustainable livelihoods in rural communities. In spite of their integral role, however, nurseries often receive inadequate training, resources, or long-term support. Production of insufficient plant quantities or poor-quality plants have considerable economic and environmental consequences and will result in unsuccessful planting programs. To succeed, nurseries need integrated and sustained support from a range of actively engaged stakeholders including communities, policymakers, and land managers to insure they are a priority investment to restore thriving landscapes worldwide.

International Principles and Standards for Restoration. Second Edition. A Brief Introduction to Key Concepts and Tools

Plant Biology Special Issue: Natural Capital from Native Seeds

The papers in this Special Issue are broadly clustered around the following topics: technical advances, seed quality for restoration, methods to improve seed germination in dormant seed lots, demands imposed by changing environmental conditions, and the role of national policies in the use of native seed.

Priority Effects in Restoration: Benefits, Costs, Caveats, and Questions

Using naturally occurring climate resilient corals to construct bleaching-resistant nurseries

Direct seeding for ecological restoration in Brazil – roadmap process and the Strategic Action Plan

The direct seeding technique is an option for restoration projects that is significantly cheaper, more efficient, and reaches higher impact compared to planting seedlings, contributing to large scale restoration. Yet its adoption in Brazil is still small, due mainly to the lack of knowledge of the technique itself among researchers and practitioners. Other barriers that can discourage or prevent direct seeding adoption are the supply of seeds, diversity of implementation activities for different vegetation and physical conditions, and regulatory barriers, among others. In this context, the Seed Pathway Initiative was developed to leverage direct seeding adoption in Brazil, enabling conditions for its large-scale use through a multi-stakeholder roadmap that resulted in an Action Plan to increasing direct seeding in restoration projects. Government, researchers, NGOs, service providers, seed networks, and other relevant stakeholders contributed for a diagnostic, analysis and prioritized actions, also considering regional particularities. The Action Plan contains strategies and actions designed for each focal region of the initiative (São Paulo and Mato Grosso states), as well as those of national scope and for other specific regions, important in the country’s environmental context. The Action Plan covers a 5-year horizon, setting out the strategy for the entire country with lessons for other countries and considering the activities with the greatest impact on the technique adoption. Some of the actions are technical demonstration units for capacity purposes, outreach activities (publications of booklets and projects database), professionalization of seed networks, changes of specific regulations, and establishment of public-private partnerships.

What Do We Know & What Do We Still Need to Know to Use Priority Effects in Ecological Restoration?

Adapting land restoration to a changing climate: Embracing the knowns and unknowns

UNCCD Knowledge Hub

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a key global authority on scientific and technical knowledge in the areas of desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD), and on the negative effects of DLDD on productive land and relevant ecosystems. Through its Knowledge Hub, the UNCCD provides a framework for organizing scientific and technical information around these topics as well as access to best practices relevant to Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and Sustainable Land Management (SLM).

Relevance for the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration:
Reports, such as Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality at the Country Level, outline the steps needed to assess land degradation (A1) and identify the key drivers of degradation (A6). The SLM section also includes guidance and best practices relevant to assessing sustainable productive practices in activity A6. The Country Information section includes National commitments to LDN, in line with activities A5 and B6, and National Action Programmes, which may add additional information. The Global Land Outlook (GLO) Regional Reports discuss stakeholder engagement (A3), legal, policy and financial frameworks (B1), land tenure (B2), and safeguarding measures for indigenous peoples and local communities (B5), among other topics relevant to restoration.

Native woodland restoration to counteract carbon land emission in Iceland

Restoration has become one of the key measures to mitigate climate change. With increasing emphases not only on carbon sequestration but also carbon emission from degraded land, calls for better strategies and prioritisation are critical. Iceland with its volcanic soil (Andosol) is an example of large-scale ecosystems conversion following settlement in the 9th century that resulted in approximately 50% of the island now classified as having considerable to severe erosion. To date attempts have been made to revegetate and restore ecosystems on this badly degraded land. However, improved understanding of the degradation processes highlights the need to focus restoration activities on degraded lands that are potential carbon sources, but which have not yet crossed a threshold leading to severe soil erosion. Downy birch (Betula pubescens) is the only native woodland forming species in Iceland, and its distribution has declined from estimated 20-30% of the country at settlement to 1.5% at present. Recent examples show a rapid spread of birch where conditions are favourable, even into nutrient-poor barren landscapes. Thus, it is imperative to identify areas in which minimum interventions may initiate this process. The aim of this study is to utilise existing data with known geographic locations on birch distribution and land classes to analyse the potential for birch woodland restoration with minimum interventions. We will use Iceland as an example of how prioritisation and natural regeneration together with limited input can simultaneously combine the three UN conventions on climate change (UNFCCC), biological diversity (CBD) and desertification (UNCCD).

Prioritization Tools: A Case for the Management Unit Control Plan tool

Is the restoration of thicket in the Albany Thicket Biome with woody species really not feasible?

It has been reported that the restoration of semi-arid thicket with woody species is not ecologically feasible in South Africa. Transformed and degraded semi-arid thicket exhibits exceedingly poor resilience with normal succession precipitating low species diversity dominated by grasses and ephemerals. The transformed and degraded mesic-thicket types have only slightly improved resilience but also limited species richness with many guilds missing – despite many decades without the drivers of degradation being present. The restoration of thicket has largely been focused on the en masse planting of one species (Portulacaria afra) with the assumption that, once established, it will facilitate the natural return of the other species, specifically the missing woody plant guild.  A lack of understanding regarding the ecophysiology of key woody species, as well as the nuances of the microclimate needed for succession has limited restoration success in the thicket. This research seeks to take a systems approach to understanding the multi-scale dynamics for the restoration of mesic-thickets, then apply the wisdom gained from this process to tackling the major challenge of effective restoration of degraded thicket areas with woody species.  The results from fifteen common woody species found in mesic thickets indicates that drought-sensitivity, germination success, seedling growth rate, herbivory, nurse-planting, tree-shelters, ponding, and other treatments have significant species-specific effects. The intimate understanding of these relationships correlated spatially and temporally with the major thresholds that limit the germination, establishment, survival, growth rate, and canopy recruitment – will enable the successful restoration of thicket with woody species.

The Koup, the gold standard in community base natural resource management in Western Cape, South Africa

The implications of a “project” mindset on ecological restoration at the community level – Mpophomeni township as a case study

The Mpophomeni enviro-champs are lauded as a best practice model for a community-based approach to catchment management and restoration. Vital work to help “Save Midmar Dam” has been undertaken by a handful of community members for several years, and they were recently mentioned in the Presidential Jobs Summit Framework Agreement. However, when one scratches under the surface, the tale of the Enviro-champs and their essential work is one of two steps forward, and one step back. Funding has been from several sources, over various time frames, with disparate objectives, resulting in loss of momentum, and at times disillusionment. The Mpophomeni Enviro-champs are just one example of how short-term funding cycles impact negatively on effective, sustainable ecological restoration at a community level. The approach to community-based ecological restoration needs to shift to long-term programming that is built into the “operations” of responsible authorities. The business case for this approach is clear, with the annual operating cost of maintaining community teams much lower than the cost of refurbishment, rehabilitation and/or replacement due to the lack of daily maintenance of our ecosystems. The benefit to the natural environment is only one of the impacts; the social impact within the broader community being equally important. With a long-term funding mindset, ecological restoration moves from the simple tasks of clearing, cleaning, and monitoring, to broader education and social change of an entire community and its relationship to the natural environment. Surely this should be our goal.

Undervalued and Overlooked: Naturally Regenerated Vegetation in Agroecological Landscapes

Restoring habitat and hope: The Sagebrush in Prisons Project

The Sagebrush in Prisons Project, a collaborative effort between the US Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management, Institute for Applied Ecology, and state Departments of Correction engages multiple prisons across seven western states (CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA, UT) in the United States. Working with prison systems to engage inmates in habitat conservation and ecological science is an innovative approach to increase our ability to reestablish habitat and at-risk species, while simultaneously providing people in custody with opportunities for reciprocal restoration, vocational education, therapeutic activities, safer conditions, and lower costs of imprisonment. Adults in custody contribute to the conservation of Greater Sage-Grouse and its habitat, the Sagebrush Sea, by growing sagebrush plants in prison-run native plant nurseries. This distributed network of nurseries produces locally sourced sagebrush seedlings for habitat restoration on public lands, primarily in response to wildfires in priority habitat for the grouse. The quality of these sagebrush seedlings is exceptional, and first year survival is very high (>80%). Since 2014, the program has engaged over 3,500 adult and youth inmates who grew and planted over 1.1 million sagebrush seedlings. Adults in custody also receive training in horticulture and nursery production, lectures in science and conservation, and certificates for their accomplishments. Including incarcerated people in conservation and science taps into the positive potential of over 2 million inmates at over 4,000 prisons and jails in the United States and creates new partnerships for educating an underserved community and supporting large scale ecological restoration and research. 

Rural Community Socio-ecological Benefits in the Upper Pongola Catchment

IUCN World Database on Key Biodiversity Areas

The World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas hosts data on Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). This database can support strategic decisions on protected areas by governments or civil society towards achieving Aichi Biodiversity Targets. It also guides the identification of sites under international conventions and in the setting of private sector policies and standards. The database is managed by the KBA Partnership, which comprises 13 partners and is served by the KBA secretariat hosted jointly by BirdLife International and IUCN.

Relevance for the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration:
The planning of restoration interventions and their location can also draw on assessments of areas of global importance for biodiversity such as IUCN Key Biodiversity Areas. Map data can be used in combination with other data for GIS analysis to identify and prioritize areas for restoration (A2).

DroneSeed: Using UAVs to conduct surveys, herbicide applications, and aerial seed deployment in forests and rangelands

DroneSeed is a Seattle-based startup that is developing software, hardware, and infrastructure for operational capacity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to conduct surveying, herbicide application, and aerial seed deployment in forests and rangelands. Their mission is to provide more efficient and rapidly scalable survey and revegetation services for myriad ecosystem management needs. They are currently paid per acre to survey, mitigate invasive species with herbicides, and plant (enabled seed) for the largest timber companies in the US. They are also partnered with The Nature Conservancy and have begun seed-based rangeland restoration work in Oregon and post-fire forest restoration work in other locations in the American West. The presentation will provide an overview of the company’s technology, review projects and milestones, and outline the research and development supporting their data-driven approach. Wildfire and other large-scale ecosystem disturbances are increasing in frequency and severity. Constraints to post-disturbance revegetation include accessibility to remote areas, difficulty distributing seed precisely at scale, invasive species mitigation, and associated costs. DroneSeed is developing a multi-pronged approach to revegetation using UAVs that is applicable to large-scale post-disturbance revegetation and native plant management at an effective cost. Their supervised classification platform is the basis for a machine learning software being developed for seed placement (i.e. micrositing) for optimizing germination and survival. DroneSeed is increasing operational capacity using swarm technology, enabling multiple heavy lift aircraft to move material payloads across restoration areas with increased precision. The company is precedent setting in the regulatory environment allowing for this work.

Stewardship: taking care of something, e.g. valuable objects

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The IUCN Red List provides regularly updated assessments of conservation status of many species as well as geographic range maps for each of them. It provides the  world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.

Relevance for the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration:
Planning of restoration interventions and their location can draw on spatially explicit information on areas of importance for threatened species, such as those provided here. Range maps can be downloaded for further GIS analysis, and used to prioritize essential areas for restoration based, in line with activity A2.

Secondary invasion after clearing invasive Acacia saligna in the South African fynbos

It is often assumed that clearing invasive alien species will lead to the dissipation of their negative impacts and recovery of native biodiversity. However, this is often not the case because clearing of primary invasive alien species can lead to secondary invasion by non-target species. We investigated the effects of vegetation type and application of fire during management of biomass after clearing invasive acacias on secondary invasion in the South African fynbos. Furthermore, we determined how these effects change with years after clearing. We sampled vegetation in lowland and mountain fynbos cleared of Acacia saligna using the “fell, stack and burn” method. During burning of the stacked slash, the area at the centre of the stack experiences a high severity fire while the area at the edge experiences a low severity fire. After fire, burn scars remain in place of the stacked slash. We sampled in and outside of 80 burn scars over three years after clearing. We identified 32 secondary invader species. Secondary invader cover was lower where there were no fires compared to where there were high severity fires (27%) and low severity fires (30%). Three years after clearing, secondary invader richness and cover remained similar to or higher than in the first year, while secondary invader richness was similar between lowland and mountain fynbos. We conclude that practicing restoration ecologists have to manage these species to ensure successful restoration of native biodiversity.

Ex-situ Plant Conservation in Eastern Madagascar: Creating a Resource for Future Forest Restoration Endeavours

Seeds and stewards of the future: A U.S. collaboration

As the foundation of healthy functioning ecosystems, native plant communities buffer the impacts of extreme events such as wildfires, invasives, and prolonged drought. Under the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “multiple-use” mandate, there is a significant need for locally adapted, native plant materials to restore and support resilient ecosystems. BLM leads Seeds of Success (SOS), a U.S. native seed collection program, in partnership with numerous other federal agencies and non-federal organizations. SOS was established in 2001 as the first step in the Native Plant Materials Development Process, with the mission to collect wildland native seed for research, development, germplasm conservation, and ultimately ecosystem restoration. Portions of each collection are held in long-term storage facilities for conservation. SOS has a national protocol to coordinate seed collecting and species targeting efforts. To date, SOS has more than 24,400 native seed collections through its diverse network. SOS includes many partners, such as arboreta, zoos, municipalities, and botanic gardens, including Chicago Botanic Garden, which developed the Conservation and Land Management (CLM) internship program. The CLM program places 75-100 early-career scientists in five-month paid internships to assist professionals with projects, including SOS.​ Since 2001, the CLM program has successfully placed over 1500 interns, providing them with a rich experience from which to launch their professional careers. The success of both CLM and SOS are contingent upon each other and the highly qualified interns who have made the majority of SOS collections.

Linking Fire and Ecosystem Restoration in Mediterranean climate-region shrublands and forest: a view from six continents

UN-REDD Programme

The UN-REDD Programme supports countries to apply the UNFCCC’s safeguards, and to conduct land-use planning for REDD+ to deliver multiple environmental and social benefits while reducing risk. REDD+ activities, as defined by the UNFCCC, includes the enhancement of forest carbon stocks, which may be implemented through restoration interventions.

Relevance for the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration:
The UN-REDD website contains resources on stakeholder engagement and gender balance (A3), forest governance (A4), and tenure security (B2). The Multiple Benefits webpage of the UN-REDD Programme contains a number of national and subnational scale spatial analyses of the potential for REDD+ implementation to deliver multiple benefits, which include the conservation of biodiversity, in line with activity A4. Several mapping tutorials and a GIS toolbox are also available to support REDD+ planning and secure multiple benefits.

Peatland degradation: From fire to restoration – southern African case studies

Peatlands compose 50% of the world’s wetlands, host a third of terrestrial carbon, and 10% of fresh water resources. However, the occurrence, functioning, and value of peatlands in drier climates, such as southern Africa, is poorly understood and their conservation status unsure. During the recent extensive regional drought, peat fires were reported from the wetter east in the Kingdom of Swaziland (KoS) and coastal KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa (SA), and the drier west in North West Province (SA) with the latest fire reported in 2019 in the southern Western Cape Province (SA). Degraded peatlands turn from carbon sinks to sources. Peatland desiccation results from the draining of peat pores, oxidation of the peat, compaction, hydrophobicity, and eventual collapse of the accumulated peat due to impacts such as drainage, erosion, or water abstraction. Peatland restoration can be complex, and therefore expensive, with varying levels of success. Not only hydrology, geomorphology and vegetation dynamics need be considered, but also a suite of microbial communities and bio-chemical processes must to be in place. A peat fire is the (burning of the) last straw resulting in the total collapse of these sensitive ecosystems. Restoration of peatlands should therefore aim to address the impacts first that resulted in the desiccation (e.g. water abstraction upstream from the peatland or an erosion gully draining it). This study focuses on five fire-scarred peatlands in SA and KoS and the success of restoration efforts using various techniques.

Dhesigen Naidoo Opening Plenary: Challenges in a Multi-Polar World

Community asynchrony rather than climate change determine the temporal stability of plant community biomass: A 20-year experimental study in eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Climate changes have the potential to influence the temporal stability of plant community biomass in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but most studies were based on short-term field climate manipulation experiments, the response of biomass stability of natural alpine meadow remain largely unexplored. We conduct a 20-year experimental study in eastern QTP with linear regressions and a path analysis of annual temperature, annual temperature range, annual precipitation, annual precipitation distribution, biomass stability of grass, biomass stability of forb, community asynchrony to assess the influence climate change and biological factors on the temporal stability of plant community biomass, we find that it was community asynchrony rather than climate change determine the temporal stability of plant community biomass and alpine meadow ecosystems are resistant to climate change. Our findings suggest that future climate change may have considerable uncertainty about the temporal stability of plant community biomass in the alpine meadow and we should combine with both field climate manipulation experiments and long-term observational experiments to assess the influence of climate change on the temporal stability of plant community biomass.

Genetic identity and genetic purity: Who cares?

Assume that you as a plant professional are in charge of restoring a compromised landscape as it was pre-disturbance, or at least revegetate it to similar ecological form and function. You find seeds in the marketplace that appear applicable to your project at a price you can afford and order them delivered. You end up with a very nice pile of bags, bins, or boxes. Do you care if they are labeled correctly with the proper species, germplasm notation, and provenance (i.e., genetic identity)?  Do you care if the delivered seeds possess the genetic traits (and include minimal off-types or contaminants) representative of the natural populations or germplasm selections that you specified (i.e., genetic purity)?  If you do care, do you have the resources available to accomplish your own investigation before planting to verify genetic identity and genetic purity?  If you don’t have the resources, you might want to learn about seed certification schemes for native seeds applicable in your part of the world that provide traceability of origin and collection and that ensure compliance with high standards for cultivated multiplication. Sampling and testing may also be required so that the seed purity and viability is known. In this presentation, we will briefly present to you existing examples of seed certification frameworks worldwide, address the basics of the certification process and what is really necessary, and welcome your input and opinions on this topic.