Chairs
Professor Eric Higgs, University of Victoria, Canada
Professor Eric Higgs, University of Victoria, Canada
Eric Higgs is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. His scholarly work focuses on how to intervene responsibly in ecosystems experiencing rapid change. He explored these themes in Nature By Design (MIT Press, 2003), and later as co-editor of Novel Ecosystems (Wiley, 2013). He leads the Mountain Legacy Project (mountainlegacy.ca), the world’s largest systematic repeat photography project aimed at understanding historical change in Canada’s mountain landscapes. From 2001-2003, he was Chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration. His prior academic appointments were at the University of Alberta and Oberlin College, with visiting appointments at Waterloo, MIT, British Columbia, Western Australia, and Groningen.
13:30-13:45
Human-nature interactions in an urbanising world
Professor Kevin J Gaston, University of Exeter, UK
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Professor Kevin J Gaston, University of Exeter, UK
Professor Kevin J Gaston, University of Exeter, UK
Kevin J Gaston is Professor of Biodiversity & Conservation at the University of Exeter. He is a highly cited researcher with a broad range of interests in the field of ecology, currently particularly focussed on common ecology, nighttime ecology and personalised ecology. Much of his recent research has been interdisciplinary, and he is editor-in-chief of the new British Ecological Society journal People and Nature, which publishes work from across research areas exploring relationships between humans and nature. He is involved in a variety of projects that provide environmental research support to external stakeholders, including government, business and third sector organisations.
13:45-14:00
The two forest restoration worlds - social science meets restoration ecology
Dr Sarah Wilson, University of Victoria, Canada
Abstract
Responding to unprecedented global forest clearing and degradation, governments and international agencies are promoting restoration across vast areas. To produce benefits, at a minimum restoration must be well designed and executed ecologically. But effective restoration also requires local people to engage and benefit from restoration, now and in the future. Despite the need for interdisciplinary research (theoretical and applied) on creating successful, lasting restoration works and policies, the field remains largely siloed between the natural and social sciences. So, what can restoration ecologists learn from the social sciences (and vice versa)? How does the literature on restoration ecology engage with social aspects critical to success (eg, governance, livelihoods, culture), and where are connections lacking? What compromises - spatial, temporal, structural - are required to integrate ecological and social elements in practice? Dr Wilson’s team: 1) conducted a literature synthesis illustrating the degree to which restoration ecology interacts with the social sciences in key fields, and 2) describes select case studies highlighting successful elements of integration. Preliminary results show that the restoration literature is expanding rapidly, but is diverging rather than converging; with greater separation between the social and natural sciences. Many ‘interdisciplinary’ studies integrate fields at the end, rather than co-designing studies. But examples from the field show that when projects are co-designed from the beginning, inevitable compromises are better integrated and long-term outcomes appear promising. Using a systems lens, Dr Wilson presents a framework that draws together these conclusions, illustrates key relationships, and shows what meaningful integration could look like. Findings can help motivate and guide the transdisciplinary work needed for successful forest landscape restoration around the world.
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Dr Sarah Wilson, University of Victoria, Canada
Dr Sarah Wilson, University of Victoria, Canada
Sarah is a forest geographer with a background in ecology/biology (MSc, BSc) and human geography (PhD). Hailing from flat and windy rural Manitoba, she has been fascinated by tropical forests (and mountains) since learning about them in preschool. She has worked with community-based forest restoration and conservation enterprises in montane cloud forests in Andean Ecuador and the Nepalese Himalaya, and in lowland jungle in Guatemala’s Peten. Her recent postdoc with the University of Michigan focused on understanding and assessing the social and ecological outcomes of community forestry and restoration. As a postdoc, Sarah coordinates and leads papers and projects bridging the natural and social sciences, bringing ecology to the Forest Transition, social science to ecological restoration, and teasing apart the benefits derived from different types of secondary forests for people and nature. Through her research, she aims to identify ways to maximize forest recovery and conservation in rural landscapes while enhancing the sustainability of people’s livelihoods. A recipient of the prestigious L’Oreal Women in Science Mentorship Award, she is also dedicated to environmental and science education with experience in field-based environmental education, designing case studies to teach complex problems, and training educators to teach science.
14:00-14:15
Restoring forests for whom? Aligning ecological and socio-economic outcomes for successful forest landscape restoration
Dr Jeanine Rhemtulla, University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest worldwide in promoting rapid and widespread reforestation. The Bonn Challenge, for example, has set a goal of restoring 350 million hectares across the planet, roughly 3% of the global ice-free land area, by 2030. But what kind of forest will be restored—and for whom—is not at all clear. Achieving restoration success, especially in complex human-dominated landscapes and regions with high levels of poverty, will require an integrated restoration agenda that supports both ecological integrity and socio-economic development. It also requires a better understanding of trade-offs between conflicting goals, between ecosystem services, between stakeholder preferences, and understanding of how and where multiple goals can best be combined. Drawing on examples from her research in Peru, Malawi, and Ecuador, Dr Rhemtulla will discuss the importance of, challenges to, and opportunities for aligning ecological and socio-economic outcomes to improve restoration success.
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Dr Jeanine Rhemtulla, University of British Columbia, Canada
Dr Jeanine Rhemtulla, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jeanine Rhemtulla is Associate Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada. She is a landscape ecologist who works at the interface of forest and agricultural systems to understand the drivers and legacies of land-use change, with the goal of managing these dynamic landscapes to address both ecological outcomes (such as biodiversity and ecosystem function) and socio-economic outcomes (food and livelihoods). Her recent work has focused on how we can implement the ambitious Bonn Challenge global restoration targets to restore habitat while improving local livelihoods. She has worked in temperate and tropical ecosystems in Canada, Peru, Ecuador, India, Malawi, and the USA in collaboration with colleagues from many disciplines and a team of bright and inspiring graduate students.
14:15-14:30
Do we need a minimum viable ecosystem size concept in restoration ecology?
Professor Han Olff, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract
With the global rise of agriculture, livestock husbandry, and forestry, humans have simplified ecosystems by promoting the abundance of focal species groups (seed plants, large herbivores, trees) with a particular benefit to humans. Intensification of land use can be seen as increasing success in excluding negative ecological interactions (competition, predation, herbivory, parasitism) and promoting positive interactions (mutualism, decomposition) for the focal species of production, often possible at an increasingly smaller area. While in population ecology the concept of minimum viable population size has been extensively investigated and is frequently used in conservation and restoration efforts, a related notion of a minimum viable ecosystem size is mostly lacking. Professor Olff will discuss the need for, and steps towards development of this concept, presenting its key elements through a novel food web approach. In this approach, species interactions are ranked not only along a trophic axis but also along an axis of resource quality at the base of the food web. Different species groups interacting in such a network are differentially sensitive to reductions in ecosystem size. Large, mobile species with large home ranges will be relatively sensitive while small and sedentary species (plants, soil fauna) will be relatively insensitive. For small but mobile species (birds, flying insects, often making up most of the biodiversity) the outcome is unclear, as these species often interact strongly with both sedentary and large mobile groups. Formulating a minimum viable ecosystem size for restoration efforts requires therefore a better understanding of the interplay of species along multiple axes of organisation in ecological interaction networks.
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Professor Han Olff, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Professor Han Olff, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
After my PhD graduation in 1992 in Groningen, I worked 10 years in Wageningen as assistant and associate professor. Since 2002 I have been professor of Community and Conservation Ecology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. I am interested in the structure and functioning of diverse communities and ecosystems, with special attention on how plants, herbivores, detritivores and predators interact in ecosystems. Working in a range of temperate to tropical ecosystems, and both in marine and terrestrial habitats, I combine experimental work with the advancement of a various types new ecological theory. I frequently use the outcomes of this research for providing advice on nature conservation issues.
14:50-15:05
Policy and implementation learning identified through natural capital planning activities in the Oxford Cambridge Arc
Professor Paul Leinster CBE, Cranfield University, UK
Abstract
National government and local authorities have recognised the Oxford Cambridge Arc as an area of significant economic strength with the potential to become a world-leading economic area. This will require significantly more homes and substantial additional infrastructure in the Arc.The Arc is valued for its wildlife, natural places and local greenspaces. They play critical roles in providing the needs of people and businesses for clean water and air, flood regulation, healthier lifestyles and climate change adaptation. They also create attractive, resilient and productive places for people to live and work in. There is a need for a bold, strategic Arc-wide plan for the environment, natural capital and biodiversity which has the same status as the industrial, housing and transport strategies. This must ensure the protection and enhancement of the existing environment. The environment, natural capital and biodiversity should also be fully integrated within the other strategies as well as the health and wellbeing plans. To be effective this will require clear governance and accountability arrangements related to the environment in all these workstreams. A local natural capital plan is being progressed by government agencies with widespread local stakeholder engagement. It builds on a natural capital investment plan scoping project carried out by the local nature partnerships. This work identified the need for agreed methodologies for baseline assessments and for concepts such as net environmental gain. The design, implementation and policy implications of the work programmes outlined above will be discussed.
15:05-15:20
Resilience ecology is restoration for a changing world
Professor Don Falk, University of Arizona, USA
Abstract
Classical restoration theory rests on assumptions of environmental stationarity, but current rapid changes in Earth systems are compelling an evolution of the original restoration model. Species have evolved a variety of mechanisms for adapting to climatic variation over a range of time scales; however, the current pace of change may exceed the adaptive capability of many species in their current geographic distributions. Higher-order ecological disturbances, such as wildfires and insect outbreaks, compound the effects of climate stress, and often operating at time scales many times faster than even the accelerated climate velocity of the current century. Such disturbances are transient processes that can trigger significant and irreversible environmental, demographic and ecosystem change. Interactions of climate change and elevated levels of disturbance constitute the greatest challenge for restoration of terrestrial ecosystems now and many decades into the future. A consensus is emerging within the restoration field that a focus on ecological resilience, rather than strict interpretation of historical reference conditions, may be necessary to maintain and enhance the adaptive capacity of many species, communities, and ecosystems. Nonetheless, departures from historical references should be undertaken cautiously and incrementally, respecting the importance of ecological legacies, refugia, species interactions, and unexpressed genetic variation. We can decompose ecological responses to climate and disturbance by applying a scaled probability model across a spectrum from persistence and recovery to system reorganisation. These processes comprise the elements of a theorem of ecological resilience relevant to the formidable challenges in a rapidly changing world.
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Professor Don Falk, University of Arizona, USA
Professor Don Falk, University of Arizona, USA
Don Falk’s research focuses on fire history, fire ecology, and the adaptation of restoration ecology to resilience in a changing world. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and has received a Fulbright Short-Term Scholar award, the Ecological Society of America’s Deevey Award, and the Udall Faculty Fellowship in Public Policy. Don was co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Plant Conservation, originally at Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and now at San Diego Zoo Global; he served subsequently as the first Executive Director of the Society for Ecological Restoration. His books include Genetics and Conservation of Rare Plants, Foundations of Restoration Ecology (now in Second Edition) and The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Don was a delegate to the 2015 UN climate summit in Paris and lead the University’s undergraduate degree program in Global Change Ecology and Management. Don holds degrees from Oberlin College, Tufts University, and the University of Arizona.
15:20-15:35
Dryland restoration: Transdisciplinary research and the SDGs
Professor Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds, UK
Abstract
Drylands cover c.40% of the global land surface and face numerous urgent challenges. Biodiversity loss, climate change and land degradation combine with high population growth, limited employment opportunities, high levels of poverty and poor governance, resulting in food insecurity, lack of livelihood options and sometimes even conflict and unrest. Efforts to address these challenges are supported by the post-2015 development agenda. Sustainable Development Goal 15 ‘Life on Land’ commits to “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. This presentation considers what SDG15 means in practice. It examines ‘what works’ in tackling problems of land degradation and desertification, with particular focus on transdisciplinary approaches to prevent and reduce degradation, as well as in restoring degraded land. It establishes the importance of systems approaches in unpacking interactions in livelihood portfolios and value chains; in traversing temporal and spatial scales, stakeholders, sectors and ways of knowing; and in sharing knowledge, learning and experience to empower. It argues that restoration science needs to move beyond integrating science with indigenous, traditional and local knowledge, to build partnerships and co-produce restoration solutions. To achieve this, scientists need to meaningfully engage with transdisciplinarity.
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Professor Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds, UK
Professor Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds, UK
Lindsay is Professor in Environment and Development at the Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds. Her research interests broadly encompass environment and international development, and consider human-environment interactions through a systems approach. Her research projects focus on: socio-ecological resilience of mangrove systems in Vietnam; the costs of action and inaction on land degradation in Rwanda and Somalia; peatland restoration in Indonesia; and livelihoods and rural development in Brazil. Lindsay was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for her work on sustainability in the world’s drylands and is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. She was coordinating lead author for the IPBES Africa regional assessment and lead author on the IPBES Land degradation and restoration assessment. She is lead author for both the IPCC special report on land use and climate change, and the IPCC 6th assessment report.
15:35-16:45
Group discussion: shifting human baselines
17:00-18:15
Poster session