Aligning coastal restoration with ecological and societal needs Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Coastal habitats play critical ecological and societal roles in nearshore and estuarine systems. Yet despite their importance, reefs, marshes and coastal forests around the world have been highly degraded and reduced to a small fraction of their historic extent. In the United States and elsewhere, billions of dollars are being invested in coastal habitat restoration. New policies emphasize planning processes that work across sectors and jurisdictions to fund projects that provide the greatest returns for people and nature. As a result, state, county and local government agencies, non-governmental organizations and industry are facing hard questions about where to invest and how to set targets to meet these dual goals. We propose a multi-agency and NGO partner working group that will inform future restoration decisions by understanding agency needs for decision-making, assessing past restoration projects, and developing achievable metrics and approaches for aligning ecological and social goals in future efforts. Specifically we will 1) scope what drives restoration decisions now and what scientific information agencies need to better inform future decisions, 2) systematically compile and review existing information on US Federally funded restoration projects to assess the degree to which funding efforts are associated with societal and ecological needs, 3) identify opportunities to better align objectives for nature and people, and 4) pending results from previous objectives, co-design approaches and strategies for agencies to meet ecological and social goals by developing a suite of ecosystem service metrics that that complement established measures like dollars and acres. We will communicate our results and collect feedback from stakeholders through meetings, peer-reviewed papers and web-based products.

date/time interval

  • February 2015 - January 2018