Incorporating Ecosystem Services Into Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring & Assessment: Frameworks, Tools, and Examples
Citation:
JACKSON, C., C. HERNANDEZ, M. HARWELL, AND T. H. DEWITT. Incorporating Ecosystem Services Into Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring & Assessment: Frameworks, Tools, and Examples. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-22/080, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This report demonstrates that incorporating ecosystem services (ES) in restoration effectiveness monitoring and assessment (REMA) is feasible, practical, and provides strategic value that can enhance the success of restoration projects. Ecosystem restoration is pursued for a variety of reasons, typically to improve the condition of the ecological structure and/or function of a parcel of land. Although the explicit inclusion of ES as part of a restoration project’s goals has been recommended in several influential restoration guides, relatively few restoration projects have done so. Inclusion of ecosystem services in restoration project goals and effectiveness assessment can improve external support for the project by linking the outcome of restoration to benefits that stakeholders (including nearby communities) care about.
Description:
Ecosystem restoration is pursued for a variety of reasons, typically to improve the condition of the ecological structure and/or function of a parcel of land. Philosophically, it may be argued that the ultimate reason for restoration is to increase the flow of benefits from nature to people who use or care about that parcel. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate that incorporating ecosystem services (ES) in restoration effectiveness monitoring and assessment (REMA) is feasible, practical, and provides strategic value that can enhance the success of restoration projects. This report provides general approaches for identifying and prioritizing ES, particularly via stakeholder engagement, for transforming those into project goals and monitoring metrics, for using ES to assess restoration effectiveness, and to communicate progress toward restoration goals in terms that resonate with different audiences (i.e., stakeholders, adjacent communities, agencies and regulators). The audience for this report includes: restoration, remediation, and revitalization practitioners; project or program managers; and research scientists.