Dr Simon Reeves1, Simon Branigan1, Dr Francisco Martinez-Baena1, Aaron Eger2
1The Nature Conservancy, Melbourne, Australia, 2Kelp Forest Alliance, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Ecological restoration is a vital management tool to support the recovery and resilience of marine ecosystems. There are now more active marine restoration projects than ever before, and high level support for marine restoration projects through the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030).This acceleration and interest provides the field with an opportunity to realize our goal of seascape level restoration that provides equitably distributed benefits for society. However, this activity must be monitored and evaluated to assess success and guide future efforts. Currently, the problem is a lack of a standardized framework for monitoring and reporting the outcomes of restoration projects. We suggest that an easy to implement and cost effective framework for monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER) of restoration success is essential for the field to reach its full potential. Developing a consistent MER framework is challenged by the variety of different ecosystems, geographies and stages of project development. While challenging, we believe there are a number of existing organisations and opportunities that can begin to address this problem.
A successful, consistent MER approach allows for: (1) comparison among restoration projects; (2) adaptive management; and (3) determination of whether restoration projects are a success. Here we outline a MER framework and a newly developed data hub that TNC and partners are consistently implementing across marine restoration projects. The framework is adaptable for projects across multiple ecosystems and also enables comparison amongst more established projects globally. This presentation aims to encourage discussion around the benefits and costs of monitoring, how to implement consistent approaches to temperate reef restoration monitoring, evaluation and reporting across multiple ecosystems or target species and large geographic scales.
Presentation Slides – Simon Reeves
Biography:
Simon began his science career studying how Antarctic sea-ice algae survive through the long-dark polar winter.
Simon works as Data and Science manager with The Nature Conservancy. Simon’s work is focused on how we measure and report on the impact and success of marine restoration and conservation projects. Simon’s key focus is overseeing and implementing monitoring for marine conservation programs in Australia and integrating science into the design and delivery of marine restoration projects.
Simon has a PhD in marine ecology from the University of Tasmania.
