Restoring Resilient Ecosystems (RestREco)

Lead Research Organisation: National Trust
Department Name: Swindon

Abstract

There is a global biodiversity crisis driven by mounting pressures including land degradation and climate change. Within the UK, responses include the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, which sets out a vision to secure a more biodiverse, connected and resilient landscape. The Natural Capital Committee has argued for the need to secure Net Environmental Gains, and this is a provision of the upcoming Environment Bill. A recent report from the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology highlights the needs to secure our natural capital, not just to support biodiversity, but also ensure the provision of wider ecosystem services. Questions remain, however, as to how we achieve net environmental gain; what should go where? What does success look like? How long may it take to reassemble resilient communities that can reliably deliver ecosystem services?
One widely adopted approach to securing net environmental gain is that of "ecological restoration". However, using specific natural and semi-natural ecosystems to define endpoints is increasingly contested, as target "pristine" states are hard to define, climate change is leading to a shifting baseline, and there is a need to restore ecosystems that are resilient to future pressures. We need a new paradigm for goal-seeking in ecological restoration which goes beyond reference systems, is agnostic as to prior assumptions of intactness, integrity and system "health", based on diagnostics of characteristics of functionally intact systems.
There is an aspiration across the devolved administrations to deliver net environmental gain in biodiversity across all land uses. However, the restoration of ecological communities has been led by practitioners, with relatively little evidence gathered as to how individual restoration projects link together spatially to enhance the resilience of communities. This consortium brings together leading academic ecologists with a public sector organisation and a charity at the forefront of practical restoration activities, to extract the evidence from past activities through a natural experiment, and test resilience through manipulations.
We intend to measure biodiversity, architecture and multifunctionality in ecosystems in different stages of transition from a degraded state, identify determinants and measures of complexity, and seek signals of emergent properties - especially resilience to perturbation. We have chosen grasslands and woodlands, being two major habitat types targeted for restoration programmes. Further to this we shall explore how approaches to accelerating re-integration of systems may affect emergent properties.
In summary, we propose to move restoration science forward, but considering complexity and resilience as fundamental aims for restoration projects, rather than attempting to re-create specific target ecosystems.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description In presenting to the Peoples' Assembly - a group that developed the 'Peoples Plan for Nature'. We talked about what we are aiming for in ecological restoration. In addition to the above, the project was discussed at the biannual conference of the National Trust Advisory Groups, as they debated how our approach to conservation needs to be updated.
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Other
Impact Types Societal

 
Description Appointment as chair of Defra's 'Biodiversity Expert Committee' reporting to Defra's Science Advisor and the Scientific Advisory Council. June 2023.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Delivering for Nature & People - Interdisciplinary research for a delivery organisation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact A seminar for the University of Sheffield that was also streamed online.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Investing in our national landscapes. Talk and panel in the Keynote session 'Disrupt' at the AONB Annual Conference 2023. Bath University 5th September 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The talk and subsequent panel discussion was to challenge our current approach to nature conservation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://national-landscapes.org.uk/events/annual-conference-2023
 
Description National Trust Advisory Groups Conference, Birmingham 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact PI Harris was asked to present a brief "provocation" to National Trust Staff, Volunteers and Supporters to challenge thinking about conservation activities within the Trust Regarding conservation and restoration in the face of climate change.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Panel member at the Oxford Nature Recovery Symposium 27th March 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The panel debated ecological restoration, and biodiversity net gain. This fed into a 'sprint' study led by Oxford University as part of their CtE programme.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Restoring Resilient Ecosystems (RestREco): Poster on the National Trust stand at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Belfast 12th - 15th December 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The National Trust had a stand at the BES annual conference which attracted a large number of visitors over three days, raising the profile of the rsearch projects we are involved in, including RestREco.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk to Oxford University AGLE Initiative stakeholder group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Talk to AGILE Sprint on Nature based Solutions on how to assess biodiversity outcomes, to inform their monitoring framework
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk to Suffolk Naturalists Trust Rewilding meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Talk on reconciling restoration with rewilding to a broad audience of conservation practitioners
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Thematic session "Is complexity important for ecosystem restoration" within the British Ecological Society conference, 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Members of the RestREco team proposed the thematic session for the 2022 BES conference, and this was selected. Summary of the session: This thematic session will bring together practitioners, academics and policy for a suite of talks on landscape restoration, unified by the overarching vision of the decreasing importance of past baselines and the shift to a paradigm of ecological complexity as a future baseline.
Nb - a key audience for this event was academics, but this is not listed as an option above
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022