[Coral-List] The Four Principles of Ecological Restoration - SURVEY

Mon Aug 20 02:27:21 UTC 2018

Hi everyone,

I've been following this threat with great interest, as me and my colleagues are currently wrapping up a large and comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods. In an attempt at reaching the vast amount of knowledge regarding coral restoration methods, that exists outside of traditional academic sources, we targeted three distinct sources of information (which roughly coincides with stakeholders/groups): 1) Journal articles (scientists), 2) reports (managers) and 3) through an online survey (Practitioners).

We're currently wrapping up the data collection and are aiming for the review to be finalised in the next month, however this debate has reinvigorated my resolve to get some more "negative results" in the survey (currently 100% of respondents report a successful project).

So, given the clear need for this data to be available, if you have a project to report, please fill out our survey (coralrestorationsurvey.com<http://coralrestorationsurvey.com>). We recognise the issue with reporting failed projects, in terms of future funders etc. For this reason, you can remain anonymous throughout the survey. While we aim to produce a publicly available database of our overall findings regarding the effectiveness of methods, we will not make individual survey results available at any time.

The survey takes about 10-12 minutes to fill out. If you have multiple projects you can fill those out in a single survey. Of course, we are also happy to hear about successful projects!  If you are unsure whether your organisation/group is already represented in the survey, feel free to contact me and I can double check!

Fill out survey here: coralrestorationsurvey.com<http://coralrestorationsurvey.com>

Read more about the team, and our projects here: www.gbrcoralrestoration.org<http://www.gbrcoralrestoration.org>

Regards,

Lisa

Lisa Boström-Einarsson, PhD
Research Scientist, TropWATER,
James Cook University, Australia

Co-investigator: NESP 4.3 Best practice coral restoration for the Great Barrier Reef

On 18 Aug 2018, at 12:33 pm, Julian <julian at reefcheck.org.my<mailto:julian at reefcheck.org.my>> wrote:

Hi to all
Our own small scale restoration experiments since 2011 are detailed in a booklet we published recently (available for download soon on our website www.reefcheck.org.my<http://www.reefcheck.org.my/>) which deliberately includes what didn't work so that others can learn from it and not waste more money trying something that won't work. It seems uncommon to publish such "negative" results - I sometimes wonder how much useful information is sitting in scientists minds...but never gets published because it was a "failed" experiment.
Regards,

Julian Hyde
General Manager
Reef Check Malaysia
+60 3 2161 5948
www.reefcheck.org.my<http://www.reefcheck.org.my/>
Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rcmalaysia<http://www.facebook.com/rcmalaysia>

Heard a fish bomb? E-mail us at reportfishbomb at reefcheck.org.my<mailto:reportfishbomb at reefcheck.org.my> with date, time and location

-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>> On Behalf Of Robert Nowicki
Sent: Friday, 17 August, 2018 11:33 PM
To: Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu<mailto:beridl at g.cofc.edu>>
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>>
Subject: SPAM R2: Re: [Coral-List] The Four Principles of Ecological Restoration

Hi all,

I agree that it would benefit the scientific community to highlight what doesn't work- especially given the well understood publishing bias towards positive (i.e. significant) results.  Best restoration practices include what *not *to do, and with coral restoration funding so tight, every grant not spent pursuing a known dead end is a grant that can be used to pursue new directions.  Learning what methods don't succeed is still valuable work and should be celebrated as such.

Generally, if people are afraid of "outing" organizations or people, perhaps an alternative would be to list methods that failed, or non-methodological drivers of failure (such as logistical, biological, or political challenges)?  That way restoration groups can know what to watch out for or what not to pursue without people getting thrown into the spotlight.

Curious what everyone else thinks.

Dr. Rob Nowicki

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration Mote Marine Laboratory
24244 Overseas Highway
Summerland Key, FL 33042

Office phone: (941)-504-4812

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 12:29 PM, Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu<mailto:beridl at g.cofc.edu>> wrote:

Dear Dr. Frias-Torres,

Making mistakes and learning from them is part of science.  While you
are under no obligation to share your findings I believe it would help
the community to understand what went wrong and why. There’s nothing
wrong with a failed restoration project in my eyes because coral
restoration is probably the most complex form of environmental
restoration occurring.  I don’t want to alienate, that’s a personal opinion, I want to learn.

Coming from a position of raising money to donate to coral-restoration
it would be nice to know some of these details to better make
donations. Who knows, maybe some of the money we donated went to such
organizations, I doubt it, but being so far away it can be hard to tell.

Warm Regards,
Damien Beri

Founder
Reefined Arts

B.S. Biology
The college of Charleston
Coral/Aquarium Specialist

On Aug 14, 2018, at 5:19 PM, Sarah Frias-Torres <
sfrias_torres at hotmail.com<mailto:sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Damien,
Indeed, I would like very much to share openly in Coral-List the
coral
reef restoration projects that failed because a solid scientific base
was missing.
However, this would be sensitive information (with names and dates)
and
it will alienate the organizations that funded and/or implemented the work.

Rather than alienating them pointing out they failed, I think it's
better to build a strong science-based coral reef restoration
community of scientists and practitioners, and we make our code of
conduct and our application of basic principles of ecological
restoration well known, and we publicize them through all media available, globally.

I prefer building bridges than pointing fingers... but I keep a
little
black book with project fails just in case more drastic measures are needed.

<><...<><...<><...

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Science Blog: https://grouperluna.com/ Art Blog:
https://oceanbestiary.com/

From: Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 5:03 PM
To: Sarah Frias-Torres
Cc: coral list
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] The Four Principles of Ecological
Restoration

Hi,

Thank you for sharing these 4 basic principles. Could you please
share
these failed restoration projects you have come across?

Warm Regards,
Damien Beri

M.A Marine Conservation and Policy
Stony Brook University

B.S. Biology
The college of Charleston
Coral/Aquarium Specialist

On Aug 13, 2018, at 11:34 AM, Sarah Frias-Torres <
sfrias_torres at hotmail.com<mailto:sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Dear Coral Listers

Recently, I have come upon several ill-planned coral reef
restoration
projects that failed. I also see newspaper interpretations on other
projects that are blown out of proportion.

We must bring the coral reef restoration community together and
implement a set of basic principles to guide present and future projects.

Coral reef restoration must follow the four basic principles of
planning and implementation of ecological restoration in order to
increase sustainable and valuable outcomes. These principles are
explained in Suding et al. (2015). Below, I list the four basic
principles and a direct implication for coral reef restoration labelled as CRR:

1. Restoration increases ecological integrity. Restoration
initiates
or accelerates recovery of degraded areas by prioritizing the
complexity of biological assemblages, including species composition
and representation of all functional groups, as well as the features
and processes needed to sustain these biota and to support ecosystem
function;

[CRR] Avoid "monocultures" unless they exist in natural conditions
(i.e. Acropora thickets);  aim to restore species assemblages

2. Restoration is sustainable in the long term. Restoration aims
to
establish systems that are self-sustaining and resilient; thus, they
must be consistent with their environmental context and landscape
setting. Once a restoration project is complete, the goal should be to
minimize human intervention over the long term. When intervention is
required, it should be to simulate natural processes that the
landscape no longer provides or to support traditional practices of
local communities;

[CRR] coral reef restoration jump-starts a degraded coral reef
that is
beyond natural recovery. Once the intervention ends, it must be
self-sustaining, i.e. the restored reef attracts new coral recruits,
fish community increases, etc.

3. Restoration is informed by the past and future. Historical
knowledge, in its many forms, can indicate how ecosystems functioned
in the past and can provide references for identifying potential
future trajectories and measuring functional and compositional success
of projects. However, the unprecedented pace and spatial extent of
anthropogenic changes in the present era can create conditions that
depart strongly from historical trends. Often, then, history serves
less as a template and more as a guide for determining appropriate restoration goals.

[CRR] this is shorthand for "don't "restore" a coral reef where
there
was not one to begin with.

4. Restoration benefits and engages society. Restoration focuses
on
recovering biodiversity and supporting the intrinsic value of nature.
It also provides a suite of ecosystem services (e.g., improved water
quality, fertile and stable soils, drought and flood buffering,
genetic diversity, and carbon sequestration) that enhance human
quality of life (e.g., clean water, food security, enhanced health, and effective governance).
Restoration engages people through direct participation and, thus,
increases understanding of ecosystems and their benefits and
strengthens human communities.

[CRR] Meaning, don't do "helicopter science". Involve the local
community as much as possible throughout the entire process.

I would add a communications principle:

5. Do not over-promise on what your project can do. Be very clear
on
what you are doing. A coral is not a coral is not a coral. It's not
the same to outplant one breeding sized branching coral (i.e. 20 cm
diameter),
20 thumb-sized fragment or 200 coral spat (< 1 cm diameter). Each
coral is a at a different growth stage, has different mortality rates
and different outcomes for the project. Educate journalists on the
correct way of reporting your project. I know many won't listen, but
it's worth the effort for those who would listen.

Reference

Suding K. and 12 authors (2015) Committing to ecological restoration .
Science 348: 638-640

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6235/638

Committing to ecological restoration | Science
science.sciencemag.org<http://science.sciencemag.org> At the September 2014 United Nations Climate
Summit, governments rallied
around an international agreement—the New York Declaration on
Forests—that underscored restoration of degraded ecosystems as an
auspicious solution to climate change.

<><...<><...<><...

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Science Blog: https://grouperluna.com/ Art Blog:
https://oceanbestiary.com/

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