Standards of Practice to Guide Ecosystem Restoration

To facilitate application of these principles to restoration projects, the Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration provides key recommendations for the entire restoration process, which can be applicable across all sectors of society, land or sea uses, ecosystems and regions, and to the broad array of ecosystem restoration activities under the UN Decade. The goal of this document is to provide an overview of the Standards of practice. The Standards of practice were developed through a synthesis of the large volume of existing guidance for best practices for a broad array of restorative activities, from sustainable agriculture to ecological restoration, as well as the recommendations of the Science Taskforce for the UN Decade. 
Practices have been organized by components of the restoration process. The assessment component includes the identification and evaluation of the extent and scale of degradation, considering the site and its context within the land- and seascape. Degradation is defined as the cumulative degree to which an ecosystem’s physical condition, composition, structure and function have been adversely affected by anthropogenic factors. Planning and design focuses on determining appropriate restoration activities given the ecological, socioeconomic and cultural contexts, as well as financial constraints. Restoration targets are defined, and specific goals and objectives for the restoration project are developed based on consultations with stakeholders, right holders and experts. Planning foreshadows all the onsite work that will be undertaken during the project’s implementation, whereas ongoing management considers short- and long-term site needs following the completion of planned implementation activities. Finally, the monitoring and evaluation component focuses on measuring progress towards the recovery of the restoration targets and achievement of the project’s goals and objectives, enables adaptive management for possible course corrections, and provides an opportunity to share lessons learned.