Posts from — December 2010

The RESTORE project is happy to announce that Dr. Stuart Allison (Knox College, USA) will be visiting Umeå as part of the Fulbright Intercountry Lecturer program.

Dr. Allison will give a public lecture titled ‘A comparative study of the values and practices of ecological restoration in North America and Europe’ on 7 February 2011, 13.00-14.00, in Björnsalen in the Uminova building.

He will then participate in a RESTORE team two-day seminar on 8-9 February.

Dr. Allison is a Professor of Biology currently working on the ecological and socio-cultural context of restoration. He is a Fulbright scholar for 2010-2011 at Cranfield University, UK working on his comparative study of ecological restoration in North America and Europe.

Abstract of the talk:

My seminar will begin by introducing my work and me to the Umea community.  I will summarize some of my past work that lead me to develop the project I am pursuing this year as a guest at Cranfield University funded by the Fulbright Commission.  My goal is to produce a synthesis of the approaches to ecological restoration undertaken in North America and Europe with the objective of providing a better framework from which restorationists can plan and implement restoration work of both ecological and cultural value.  By developing a better understanding of ecological restoration as it is practiced in North America and Europe, I hope to articulate the relationship between ecological value and human needs within a cross-cultural context that will allow for a more global approach to planning and discussing restorations with all stakeholders.  Thus far I have been engaged in a meta-analysis of papers published in the journal Restoration Ecology that provide a description of a restoration project.  Thus far I have surveyed every issue published from 2009-2006 and found a total of 316 papers that provide such a description.  While there are many similarities between ecological restoration as practiced in North America and Europe, there are also significant differences with North Americans more likely to attempt to restore to historical conditions and Europeans more likely to focus on restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services.  I plan to continue the meta-analysis, so I will probably have more results to discuss when I arrive at Umea.  I am also conducting an on-line survey of restorationists to determine their attitudes towards and goals for ecological restoration.  That survey is currently in progress. Good ecological restoration must produce restoration projects that have both ecological value and human meaning. The more explicitly we address both properties, the more successful we will be as restorationists and the more benefit there will be for the entire planet as we work together to repair the damages that have resulted from some human activities.