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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.
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People in the News
Al Todd named executive director of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
Todd has an extensive professional history in Bay watershed issues and solutions. Most recently, he served as the Chesapeake Bay team leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Environmental Markets and as assistant director to the Forest Service for Ecosystem Services and Markets. In those roles, he coordinated activities aimed at measuring and valuing the services that nature provides, such as clean water, and in developing markets that can foster greater investment in watershed and ecosystem restoration and protection.
http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=4184 |
| New Books & Articles
Coral reefs 'will be gone by end of the century'
Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral. The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear this century in what would be "a new first for mankind - the 'extinction' of an entire ecosystem". Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/coral-reefs-will-be-gone-by-end-of-the-century-2352742.html |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Montana: A forest, watershed and community jobs bill
Two years into a slow economic recovery, many Montana rural communities are still struggling to create jobs. The unemployment rate in rural counties is just under 8 percent compared to 6 percent for Montana's metropolitan counties. In hard economic times, Montana has relied on its forests for jobs and income. Today, logging cannot lift the state alone, but logging combined with forest and watershed restoration work can be the basis for job growth in Montana's rural counties.
http://helenair.com/news/opinion/a-forest-watershed-and-community-jobs-bill/article_8f1e4bb2-ddcb-11e0-8d24-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1Xvtw8Acl |
| Agro-Ecology
Florida: Preserving the rural landscape
"This initiative is aimed at preserving a rural working ranch landscape to protect and restore one of the great grassland and savanna landscapes of eastern North America," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "The partnerships being formed would protect and improve water quality north of Lake Okeechobee, restore wetlands, and connect existing conservation lands and important wildlife corridors to support the Everglades restoration effort," he said
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2011/sep/08/preserving-the-rural-landscape/
A Huge Oil Palm Plantation Puts African Rainforest at Risk
As global agricultural companies turn to Africa, a U.S. firm is planning a massive oil palm plantation in Cameroon that it says will benefit local villagers. But critics argue that the project would destroy some of the key remaining forests in the West African nation and threaten species-rich reserves.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/huge_oil_palm_plantation_puts_africa_rainforest_at_risk/2441/
Taiwan: Forestry Bureau project brings fallow lands back to life
More than 50 species of frogs-half the number of all frog species in Taiwan-can now be found in Gongliao. On land that had lain fallow for many years, grasses took hold once more, and even endangered fish species have been sighted. One farmer has spotted the endangered damselfly, or Ceriagrion melanurum, on more than 100 occassions. The bureau's plan is in imitation of similar projects in Europe and Japan, the official said. Participating farmers need only help in keeping the waterways clear, cutting grass, and tilling the soil. In return, they receive NT$6,000 (US$207) per section of land they are responsible for-NT$4,500 more than they would receive if they allowed the land to lie fallow.
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=175831&ctNode=445 |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
Australia: Biodiversity Haven Envisaged
Rejuvenating bushland and improving recreation and landscape values for the community are the main aspects of the Bold Park Management Plan, released by the Department for Water and Environment this week. Environment Minister Bill Marmion said the 437ha, A-class nature reserve in City Beach contained a significant area of coastal bushland that was a haven for native biodiversity. "Building on previous plans, a key focus is ongoing ecological restoration of the Tuart and Banksia woodlands and limestone heath vegetation communities in priority sites throughout the park," Mr Marmion said.
http://www.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/local-news/Biodiversity-Haven-Envisaged/7601752/
Climate Change Threatens Bhutan's Gross National Happiness
Hydropower, the biggest economic driver in the Himalayan country of Bhutan, is threatened by serious water shortages as the country's glaciers melt due to climate warming, finds Bhutan's latest National Human Development Report. Many of Bhutan's glaciers are melting at a higher rate than those in other mountain ranges, according to the new report, "Sustaining Progress: Rising to the Climate Challenge." http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2011/2011-09-09-02.html
Climate Conversations - Combining adaptation and mitigation in Latin American forests
The long held view that adaptation and mitigation are mutually exclusive approaches for reducing the impacts of climate change has been questioned in a recent study, with the beginnings of an integrative approach in many forestry projects in Latin America showing improved outcomes at the local level.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/combining-adaptation-and-mitigation-in-latin-american-forests
Africa: Developing Countries' Designs for the Green Climate Fund
With its coffers largely dry and its management being contested, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) remains a hot topic among African civil society. Ahead of the upcoming international climate change meeting in South Africa, African ministers have already met to set their agenda and civil society is looking to do the same.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105090
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Alumni and Thai Youths Show their Passions for Greener Forest
To take action against deforestation and climate change, a dozen Thailand State Alumni joined hands with 15 American Studies Club (ASC) students from Chiang Mai University to implement the "Northern Thailand State Alumni's Forest Restoration Project" at Mae Sa Mai Hill Tribe Village, Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, on September 3, 2011. Youth alumni from diverse exchange programs, including USBT, Southeast Asia Youth Leadership, Fulbright, YES and Global UGRAD, together with ASC students, helped a local Hmong community to nurture some young trees, apply organic fertilizer, weed and grade local tree seedlings.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150291195449463.347766.326294979462&type=1
Saving Ancient Walnut Forests In the Valleys of Central Asia
The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan is home to some of the world's largest remaining forests of walnut and wild fruit trees. In an effort to sustainably manage this global resource, an international project has focused on ending Soviet-style management and giving power - and a profit incentive - to local farmers.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/saving_ancient_walnut_forests_in_the_valleys_of_central_asia/2440/
Africa Forest Restoration Can Protect Food Security
Restoring and preserving dry-land forests can help provide food and fertilizer on small farms and prevent the recurrence of famine in Kenya and other African countries, a research group said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/13/bloomberg1376-LRGCDA0D9L3501-2HCVH08R84BGT7R4JNHKF4OT68.DTL#ixzz1Xvsiqgim |
| Wetland Restoration
Washington: Restoration project complete for Klingel wetland
The Great Peninsula Conservancy has completed its first habitat restoration project. In August, work was finished on turning an old farming dike to saltwater marsh at Klingel Wetland, which is the GPC's longest-owned property.
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/sep/11/restoration-project-complete-klingel-wetland/#ixzz1Xk9Zvwo2
India: The great wetland grab
Guwahati, the sprawling million plus city of north eastern India has grown at the cost of vital wetlands. While the rich legally bought the water-bodies, the poor 'illegally' encroached on them. With major storm water basins in the city disappearing, every monsoon, Guwahati reels under flashfloods. The June 22 police firing on poor settlers was but a flashpoint: the mess is visibly deeper. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/great-wetland-grab
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| Arid Land Restoration
UN Pleads For 'A Cap on Land Degradation'
The United Nations' top official in-charge of combating desertification has called upon world leaders to "put a cap on land degradation" that has already adversely affected 40 percent of the world's agricultural land with dire consequences for the poorest of the poor. "Just 6-10 inches of top soil stand between us and extinction," says UNCCD Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja, adding: "Productive land is a finite resource like our oceans and forests." And yet every year some 12 million hectares of land are being lost to degradation.
http://www.indepthnews.info/index.php/global-issues/401-un-pleads-for-a-cap-on-land-degradation |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
California: Bay salt pond restoration reaches milestone
It's not often that a breaking levee hits the news and is cause for celebration. But that's what's happening tomorrow when workers breach a levee in the former Cargill salt ponds in Hayward. It's a milestone for the 8-year-old wetland restoration project that covers 15,000 acres. John Bourgeois, executive project manager for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, told KQED it's the project's first levee breach on the east side of the Bay. Bourgeois says people near the bay will be able to see changes from this latest breach, just like they have from prior restoriation work on the project.
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/09/12/bay-salt-pond-restoration-reaches-milestone-tomorrow/ |
| 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.pdfTerra 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-makersCalifornia: 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.htmlTamarisk 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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