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8
RECOMMENDATIONS
Prioritize to protect biodiversity and ecosystem ser-
vice hotspots, even when partially degraded, to halt
further degradation and allow for restoration plan-
ning to commence.
Conservation, within the context of
spatial planning, provides by far the most cost efficient
way to secure ecosystem services. This is particularly criti-
cal for areas with high degree of land pressures and de-
velopment.
Ensure that investments in restoration are combined
with long-term ecosystem management
in both re-
stored and in surrounding areas to ensure gradual re-
covery. Overseas Development Agencies, International
finance agencies and other funders including regional
development banks and bilateral agencies should fac-
tor ecosystem restoration into development support; job
generation and poverty alleviation funding.
Infrastructure projects that damage an ecosystem
should set aside funds
to restore a similar degraded
ecosystem elsewhere in a country or community. Pay-
ments for Ecosystem Services should include a propor-
tion of the payment for the restoration and rehabilitation
of damaged and degraded ecosystems. One percent of
GDP should be considered a target for investments in
conservation and restoration.
Apply a multidisciplinary approach across stake-
holders
in order to make restoration investments
successful. Wise investments reduce future costs and
future public expenses, but it is imperative that the
driving forces and pressures behind the initial degra-
dation are addressed in order to secure progressive re-
covery and that local stakeholders become involved and
benefit from the restoration process.
Ensure that restoration projects take into account
the changing world:
Ecosystem restoration should be
implemented in consideration of scenarios for change in
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
a continually changing world, including climate change
and land pressures. Changes in surrounding areas or in
the prevailing environmental conditions will influence
both the rate of recovery and ultimate restoration success.
Restoration needs to address a range of scales
from
intense hotspot restoration to large-scale restoration to
meet regional changes in land degradation. Degree of
biodiversity restored is often linked to quality of ser-
vices obtained and is intrinsically linked to successful
outcome.
Ensure that ecosystem restoration is implemented,
guided by experiences learned to date,
to ensure that
this tool is used appropriately and without unexpected
consequences, such as the unintended introduction of
invasive species and pests and sudden abandonment of
restoration targets in the process.
Apply ecosystem restoration
as an active policy option
for addressing challenges of health, water supply and
quality and wastewater management by improving water-
sheds and wetlands, enhancing natural filtration.
Apply ecosystem restoration
as an active policy option
for disaster prevention and mitigation from floods, tsuna-
mis, storms or drought. Coral reefs, mangroves, wetlands,
catchment forests and vegetation, marshes and natural ri-
parian vegetation provide some of the most efficient flood
and storm mitigation systems available and restoration of
these ecosystems should be a primary incentive in flood
risk and disaster mitigation planning.
Enhance further use of ecosystem restoration
as a
mean for carbon sequestration, adaptation to and miti-
gation of climate change. The restoration targets for se-
questration includes among other forests, wetlands, ma-
rine ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses and salt
marshes, and other land use practices.
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)