Developing countries often outsource deforestation, study finds

In many developing countries, forest restoration at home has led to deforestation abroad, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors say their findings could have significant implications for ongoing efforts to protect the world's remaining forests, which are disappearing at an annual rate of more than 32 million acres - an area roughly the size of England. "Reducing deforestation is an international priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions and biodiversity," said study co-author Eric Lambin of Stanford University in California and the University of Louvain in Belgium. "However, our study found that strengthened forest-conservation policies and economic expansion often increased the demand for imported timber and agricultural products, which contributed to deforestation abroad."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/su-dco112310.php

A Tidal Hydrology Restoration Guidance Manual for the Southeastern U.S.

Returning the Tide offers guidance to restoration practitioners and coastal resource managers who may not have familiarity with tidal hydrology restoration techniques. Unique features of the manual include the Project Portfolios and Toolkit. The Project Portfolios provide details on 13 real-world projects including background, results, and lessons learned. They also reference supporting documents such as actual budgets, scopes of work, designs, and permitting information to serve as examples.  The Toolkit section is a resource for restoration project planning and implementation. It is designed to be easy to use by providing checklists, agency contact information, example project documents, and bulleted to-do lists for every stage of project implementation.

http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/partners/toolkits/tidal_hydro.html

Restoration and History The Search for a Usable Environmental Past

This book explores how a consideration of time and history can improve the practice of restoration. There is a past of restoration, as well as past assumptions about restoration, and such assumptions have political and social implications. Governments around the world are willing to spend billions on restoration projects - in the Everglades, along the Rhine River, in the South China Sea - without acknowledging that former generations have already wrestled with repairing damaged ecosystems, that there have been many kinds of former ecosystems, and that there are many former ways of understanding such systems. This book aims to put the dimension of time back into our understanding of environmental efforts. Historic ecosystems can serve as models for our restorative efforts, if we can just describe such ecosystems. What conditions should be brought back, and do such conditions represent new natures or better pasts? A collective answer is given in these pages - and it is not a unified answer.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t913224129