Facilitating the Adoption of the Standards of Practice for Ecosystem Restoration (Oct 2023)

Abstract
The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to substantially advance restoration practice, science, and policy, in part by creating a shared vision of ecosystem restoration and the principles that underpin it, as well as clear standards for what constitutes best practice. Towards this end, UN Decade partners recently launched Standards of Practice for Ecosystem Restoration, with input from over 500 experts in the field. The standards provide the essential tenets of ecosystem restoration that should be followed to maximize net gain for native biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, and human well-being, across all biomes, sectors and regions. However, broad application and uptake of the Standards of Practice requires tools to assist the restoration community with tailoring the large volume of guidance to specific biomes, landscapes and seascapes and projects. This webinar provides an opportunity to explore existing tools developed for other ecosystem management standards (e.g., Conservation Standards) and their potential relevance for the Standards of Practice. The webinar will be interactive: participants will be invited to share information about the tools they currently use as well as their ideas on the types of tools that would be most useful for application of the Standards of Practice.
Speaker bio-sketches
Andrea Romero is a consultant in the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism at FAO, and facilitator of the Task Force on Best Practices for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Since 2020, she has provided support to the Task Force activities regarding knowledge dissemination and capacity development for ecosystem restoration at global level. In her role, she has contributed to the development of the UN Decade principles and standards to guide ecosystem restoration; the UN Decade Capacity, Knowledge and Learning Action Plan; and the UN Decade framework for collection and dissemination of good practices. She holds a bachelor's degree in forest engineering and an MSc in Forest and Nature Conservation from Wageningen University.
Dr. Cara R. Nelson is a Professor of Restoration Ecology and Chair of the Department of Ecosystem Sciences and Conservation at University of Montana and the Director of the University’s Restoration Ecology Laboratory. The Lab’s mission is to generate knowledge about ecological processes associated with ecosystem degradation and repair and to apply that knowledge to improving restoration interventions. Towards these ends, Cara and her students study the effects of large-scale disturbance on vegetation dynamics, the efficacy and ecological impacts of ecological restoration, and the science behind the selection of native plant materials. Cara is the Lead of the Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group for IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management, a past Chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration, and an associate editor for the journals Restoration Ecology, Conservation Science and Practice, and Fire Ecology.