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 RESTORE is a weekly e-bulletin, published by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), linking you to the latest, breaking news stories from around the world keeping you up-to-date on a wide variety of topics related to ecological restoration including the latest funding opportunities. RESTORE is free to SER members. Please send your news stories and articles to the RESTORE editor at info@ser.org. |
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Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Convention on Biological Diversity Call for Abstracts/Posters - Deadline September 30, 2011
The deadline has been extended and you need not attend the meeting in order to have your abstract published and poster displayed. Contact Sasha (sasha@ser.org) for guidelines.
http://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2011/ntf-2011-140-sbstta15-en.pdf
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People in the News
The Society for Ecological Restoration confers its 2011 Special Recognition Award to the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
The Society for Ecological Restoration has conferred its 2011 Special Recognition Award to the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Gala Awards Banquet on 23 August 2011 in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, on the margins of the 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration. http://www.cbd.int/
New Zealand: New environment research institute looks at the big picture
The new Environmental Research Institute, to be launched this week [Friday August 26], builds on the University's significant strengths in terrestrial, freshwater, coastal marine and Antarctic ecosystems. The ERI will undertake multi-disciplinary research across these four ecosystems with the aim of developing insights and expertise to support effective environmental outcomes. The new Institute is headed by top ecologist and Dean of the University's Faculty of Science and Engineering Professor Bruce Clarkson. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1108/S00062/new-environment-research-institute-looks-at-the-big-picture.htm |
| New Books & Articles
What Role Should Government Regulation Play in Ecological Restoration? Ongoing Debate in Săo Paulo State, Brazil
Around the world, there is growing desire and momentum for ecological restoration to happen faster, with better quality, and in more extensive areas. The question we ask is how can laws and governmental regulations best contribute to effective, successful, and broad-scale restoration?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2011.00815.x/full
Agroforestry as a Tool for Landscape Restoration
The book is comprised of 5 sections with a total of 14 chapters. The articles selected provide an overview of recent efforts to apply agroforestry technologies to landscape restoration in degraded lands located in tropical and temperate regions worldwide. The book is directed at a broad audience including academics, practitioners, and policy makers. https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=16423
Pines help endangered trees survive long distance relationships
In a paper published by Current Biology, the researchers make a counter-intuitive case for pine plantations. If it weren't for these non-native industrial forests, G. keule populations might not be as fragmented and reliant upon long-distance pollination. Yet when comparing clear cuts, small farms, and pine plantations, the latter may offer an unexpected ecological function-according to the findings, pine plantations increase the likelihood of G. keule pollination simply because pollinators pass through them quickly.
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/08/pines-help-endangered-trees-survive-long-distance-relationships.ars
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| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Can Ecosystem Restoration Businesses Lead the Green Economy?
The economic imperative for ecosystem restoration has created a new and inspiring breed of for-profit companies, such as TreeBanking featured in the video above. The fact that a company like TreeBanking is now an economic engine for healthy people and ecosystems serves to increase the economic value of leaving as much original nature alone as possible. As others follow TreeBanking's example, the renewed understanding that human health and ecosystem health are inseparably linked can expand the green economy far beyond what is possible via a narrow focus on alternative energy and green consumer products.
http://ecosector.hubpages.com/hub/Can-Ecosystem-Restoration-Lead-the-Green-Economy |
| Agro-Ecology
California: Public Comment for Draft Ecosystem Restoration Program Conservation Strategy Extended
The public comment period for the draft conservation strategy for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and Delta has once again been extended due to multiple requests from the public. The draft report, entitled "Conservation Strategy for Restoration of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Ecological Management Zone and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley Regions," will be available for public review and comment until Sept. 30, 2011.
http://yubanet.com/california/Public-Comment-for-Draft-Ecosystem-Restoration-Program-Conservation-Strategy-Extended.php |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
SER2011 Mexico Call to Action - Message from the 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration
The delegates of the Society for Ecological Restoration´s 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2011) congratulate the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for their practical and forward looking Strategic Plan 2011-2020, including Targets 14 and 15 in which the Parties have agreed that by 2020, ecosystems of particular importance to water security, human health, and sustainable livelihoods are restored, and their resilience and contribution to carbon stocks enhanced, through conservation and restoration, including the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems.
Climate Conversations - Sorting out rights to trees in Ghana
In many countries where REDD+ is now being prepared, tenure rights are ill-defined or unclear. In Ghana, the situation can be particularly confusing because formal and customary systems exist side by side. Most land in Ghana is owned and controlled by traditional authorities or families. They typically lease land to farmers under customary arrangements recognised under Ghana's constitution. Farmers share proceeds and crops with the owners of the land.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/sorting-out-rights-to-trees-in-ghana |
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Sweden ex-PM spearheads global reforestation effort
A former prime minister of Sweden has helped launch a global initiative to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020. Göran Persson, who led the country for 10 years from 1996, proposed the formation of a Global Restoration Council last week in Bonn, Germany at a ministerial roundtable to mobilise support for land restoration. The council is to be supported by think-tank the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an environmental network.
http://www.environmental-finance.com/news/view/1954
Cyprus: Rising from the ashes
On June 29, 2007, Cyprus saw one of the biggest, and fiercest forest fires in the island's modern history devour 12 square kilometres of plant life in the Saittas area on the Troodos mountain range. Four years on, efforts to reforest the area are well under way, carried out by a dedicated group of Forestry Department workers that are passionate about the forest's restoration. It is only after one looks at photographs taken just after the fire and compares them with the current state of Saittas, that the full import of this project becomes obvious. Thanks to the swift intervention of the Forestry Department and its sustained efforts to regenerate plant life in the area, the site is almost unrecognisable today.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/environment/rising-ashes/20110904
Arizona: Tribe celebrates completion of Native Plant Nursery
Restoration of forest lands in the White Mountains impacted by wildfires in the last couple of decades will soon be getting some help from the newly completed Native Plant Nursery in Canyon Day on the White Mountain Apache Reservation thanks to cooperative efforts between the tribe and U.S. Forest Service.
http://www.wmicentral.com/news/latest_news/tribe-celebrates-completion-of-native-plant-nursery/article_0b6d35da-cd13-11e0-b89e-001cc4c002e0.html
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| Wetland Restoration
Culture and wetlands in the Mediterranean: Using cultural values for wetland restoration
MedWet and the Ramsar Culture Working Group continue to advocate for the contribution of cultural values in the wise use of wetlands. A new project currently implemented by Med-INA intends to test the potential of using cultural values in strengthening wetland restoration and management efforts in three pilot sites in Greece, Cyprus and Tunisia.
http://www.medwet.org/2011/09/culture-and-wetlands-in-the-mediterranean-using-cultural-values-for-wetland-restoration/
Restoring Diverse, Invasion-Resistant, Wetland Prairies
Can restored wetlands resist invasion by weeds? We're looking for ways to give native plants an advantage while keeping the door closed to invaders. And we're hoping to find a way to do this that can help restored wetlands anywhere.
http://appliedeco.org/news/restoring-diverse-invasion-resistant-wetland-prairies
Oregon: Earth moves in restoration of Jackson Bottom Wetlands
Humans might be wondering about the bare dirt and earth moving equipment along Highway 219 just south of town. But the birds and other wildlife are excited. The earth movers are part of the first phase of a 125-acre wetland restoration project at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve. The birds and wildlife will eventually get to move into their restored digs: the Wapato Marsh.
http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2011/08/earth_moves_in_restoration_of.html
US: New Research Streamlines Wetland Restoration
Restoring this intensively drained wetland in just under a decade is now possible, thanks to new technology and research that has become a model for wetland restoration in the United States. "I was instrumental in drawing the plans, seeking funding to have this work done then planting of the materials, construction, and subsequently as we're here now controlling invasive" And by controlling, Tom means spraying each acre by hand for plants that aren't native to a "black spruce tamarack" bog.
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/video/New-Reseach-Streamlines-Wetland-Resteration--129341438.html
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| Grassland Restoration
Australia: Heart of coast restored by hand
Jan Juc Coast Action hopes the Jan Juc grasslands restoration will have the same success as the Grassy Groundcover Restoration Project which spanned three years and restored native grasslands across Victoria. "The Grassy Ground Cover Restoration Project demonstrated that it is possible to recreate grasslands," said native grasslands expert Paul Gibson Roy. Jan Juc Coast Action Chairperson, Luke Hynes, said the project is to begin in late August. "Grasslands are a vegetation type that has been severely depleted across Victoria.
http://gorcc.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/heart-of-coast-restored-by-hand/
Sowing the seeds: How Kew Gardens is taking steps to help revive UK's vanishing meadows
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026887/Kew-seed-bank-opens-people-helping-restore-vanishing-meadow-habitats.html#ixzz1XMgGGZ41
Experts at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank are growing flowers native to Britain that have previously proved difficult to cultivate. They are aiming to increase the quality, quantity and diversity of native plants and seeds for conservation organisations and landowners. The UK Native Seed Hub is designed to boost their efforts to create diverse habitats full of flowers. |
| Lake Restoration
North Carolina: Goose Pond documentary nearly completed
Bill Barnes Video Productions, LLC is poised to release its newest documentary, "Goose Pond: The Story of a Wetland and Its Neighbors" in late September. Set in Greene County, this one-hour documentary centers on the largest and one of the most successful wetland restoration projects of its kind in U.S. history, the 8,000-acre Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area.
http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1756928.html
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Wildlife Restoration
UK: Healthy Thames 'key for return of salmon'
Salmon in the Thames are more likely to be fish that have "strayed" from nearby rivers rather than a result of a multi-million pound restocking effort. Researchers collected genetic data from returning fish, which suggested that habitat restoration was more effective than species re-introductions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14719203 |
| Extractive Industries
Nigeria: Ogoni welfare association reacts to UNEP's report on oil
Nigeria: Ogoni welfare association reacts to UNEP's report on oil
As a result of this, the group is demanding an environment restoration fund of one billion dollars to be jointly contributed by Shell and the Nigerian government to halt the ecological disaster in Ogoniland and the appointment of Ogoni children in authority to oversee and monitor the implementation of UNEP recommendations, adding that the government should also provide an integrated contamination soil management centre to provide training in environmental monitoring restoration.
http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/community-news/27016-ogoni-welfare-association-reacts-to-uneps-report-on-oil
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| Funding Opportunities
The Gulf of Mexico Foundation's Community-based Restoration Partnership has reached a milestone by providing grants for now more than 75 different projects in coastal areas throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Restoring a total of about 15,000 acres over the past decade, these CRP projects have improved a wide variety of habitat types, including coastal dunes, coral reefs, oyster reefs, marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and artificial reefs. Funding from NOAA and EPA make it possible for the GMF to provided more than $3 million to projects. Other partners have contributed an additional $5.5 million in funding. The GMF is offering a new round of CRP funding for 2012.
http://www.gulfmex.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/GCRP2012RFP.pdf
The North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is requesting proposals under the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA) for review during 2011. Preliminary proposals are due 22 August 2011; projects will start 1 January 2012.
http://www.cec.org/Storage/126/15128_NAPECA_Call_for_proposals_en.pdf
Terra Viva Grants develops and manages information about grants for agriculture, energy, environment, and natural resources in the world's developing countries.
http://www.terravivagrants.org/Home/view-grant-makers
California: Ecosystem Restoration on Agricultural Lands (ERAL)
Grant funding applications are accepted on a year-round basis. The WCB meets four times each year, normally in February, May, August, and November to consider approval of funding for projects.
http://www.wcb.ca.gov/ERAL/grants.html
Tamarisk Related Grant Opportunities
The Tamarisk Coalition has developed a list of available Grant Opportunities to address tamarisk issues and riparian restoration. This list was revised as part of the Colorado River Basin Tamarisk and Russian Olive Assessment.
http://www.tamariskcoalition.org/FundingResources.html
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