Promoting ecological restoration in France: issues and solutions

Abstract

Ecological restoration has developed greatly over recent decades. Promoting harmonious relationships between scientists and practitioners, between restoration ecology and ecological restoration, is essential to improving restoration projects. These relationships are difficult to achieve at a global scale, although international action remains essential. Therefore, regional and national networks are attempting to take up the challenge. With several European countries planning to create their own network in the coming years, insights from current practice are helpful. Here, we (1) describe the context in which ecological restoration is developing in France and (2)

Bank re‐erosion action to promote sediment supply and channel diversification: Feedback from a restoration test on the Rhine

“…During the last three decades, the number of river restorations has significantly increased around the world, notably in Europe, as encouraged by the Water Framework Directive, which targets the “good status of water bodies” (Buisson et al, 2018; Morandi, Kail, Toedter, Wolter, & Piégay, 2017). Restoration‐linked monitoring (before‐after and/or control impacted schemes are generally used) is crucial to evaluate restoration success by comparing the obtained results with the restoration objectives based on indicators.…”

Using transition matrices to assess the spatio‐temporal land cover and ecotone changes in fluvial landscapes from historical planimetric data

“…Such engineering works have altered both sediment and water discharges, altering river morphodynamics and fluvial ecosystem functionalities (Palmer & Ruhi, 2019). To mitigate these impacts, river rehabilitation projects have been continuously increasing for about four decades to counteract the negative effects of human facilities (Buisson et al., 2018; Morandi et al., 2017). Historical studies are used in fluvial geomorphology to quantify channel planforms and land cover changes over time.…”

Fresh perspectives for classic forest restoration challenges

“…Ecological restoration is today a key tool to counteract the global increase of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss (Aronson & Alexander 2013;Bastin et al 2019), as has been acknowledged by the declaration of 2021-2030 as the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (UNGA 2019). However, restoration ecology is a young discipline, which still faces challenges that need to be urgently addressed (Buisson et al 2018). Restoration planning and assessment are essential stages of ecological restoration (Fig.…”