Open KE Fellowship: Developing best-practice for natural process restoration in the British uplands

欧盟和英国的生物多样性战略制定了雄心勃勃的目标，即到2020年阻止生物多样性的下降，恢复生态系统，最大限度地提高自然为社会提供的服务。这个开放的NERC知识交流奖学金将帮助政策制定者和从业人员实现这些目标，通过生产的最佳实践指南，高地自然过程恢复或“再野生化”。这将通过汇集一个主要由NERC资助的学者网络，与从业人员，政策制定者，专业机构和企业交流知识和经验来实现。成功将有助于为子孙后代保护自然遗产，缓解洪水和水质等重大国家挑战，并提供更具复原力的农村社区和经济。野化是跨学科保护科学中的一种新兴方法。它被提议作为一种补充方法，通过重建自然过程，使生态系统能够自我恢复和维持，对既定的生物多样性保护进行补充。如果成功的话，它将通过减少与直接管理相关的经常性成本，提供一种可持续和具有成本效益的保护方法。高地是一个重要的起点，因为这里的行动的影响随着水、沉积物和营养物的流动通过河流集水区级联而下。为恢复考虑的关键的、支配性的自然过程将是捕食、食草动物、干扰和水文。主要目标是：1）将学者、从业人员、政策制定者和企业聚集在三个研讨会上，共同制定最佳实践指南，为自然过程恢复政策提供信息; 2）通过与利益攸关方直接接触和创建在线资源平台，传播这些指南。Rewilding Britain是一家英国慈善机构，希望看到栖息地扩大，野生动物繁殖，社区蓬勃发展。Rewilding Britain的一个重要目标是与学术界合作，整理，综合并向其合作伙伴，政府机构，土地所有者和公众传播最好的研究。他们希望利用这次合作来创建和维护一个在线的“野化知识中心”，让利益相关者和公众参与进来。虽然野化提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，但目前缺乏具体的证据基础来正确评估其可行性、价值、风险和相关成本。然而，有相当数量的相关基础和应用保护，生态，生态水文学和社会经济学的研究，可以帮助制定野化政策和最佳实践。NERC一直是这项研究的主要资助者。这个知识交流计划将整理和综合学术伙伴的研究，包括Y教授。Malhi，Prof. D.W. Macdonald教授萨瑟兰教授Brazier，A.牛顿，S博士。Carver，Dr. P. Jepson，and the applicant Dr. C.J. Sandom.这些综合知识将作为初级读本，通过两个关于野化方法、价值、风险和成本的讲习班，与项目的实践和政策伙伴进行双向知识交流。第三个讲习班将专门讨论共同制定自然进程恢复的最佳做法准则。项目合作伙伴包括Rewilding Britain，John Muir Trust，Wild Europe，Woodland Trust和Conservation Capital。通过利益攸关方的参与和制定最佳做法准则，土地管理者将能够确定和选择适当的具有成本效益的行动，以恢复该项目带来的高地自然进程。这将导致高地以自然为基础的社会经济发展，随着水流向下游流动。

The EU and UK Biodiversity Strategies have set ambitious goals of halting the decline in biodiversity and restoring ecosystems to maximise the services nature provides society by 2020. This Open NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship will help policy-makers and practitioners achieve these goals by producing best-practice guidelines for upland natural process restoration or 'rewilding'. This will be achieved by bringing together a network of primarily NERC funded academics, with practitioners, policy-makers, professional bodies and businesses to exchange knowledge and experience. Success will help safe guard natural heritage for future generations, alleviate major national challenges such as flooding and water quality, and provide more resilient rural communities and economies. Rewilding is an emerging approach within inter-disciplinary conservation science. It is proposed as a complementary method to established biodiversity conservation by re-establishing natural processes to allow ecosystems to restore and sustain themselves. Where successful it will deliver a sustainable and cost-effective approach to conservation by reducing the recurrent costs associated with direct management.The overall aim of this Knowledge Exchange fellowship is to facilitate the restoration of naturally functioning upland ecosystems in Britain. The uplands are an important starting point because the impacts of actions here cascade down through river catchments with the flow of water, sediments and nutrients. The critical, overarching, natural processes considered for restoration will be predation, herbivory, disturbance and hydrology. The key objectives are: 1) to bring together academics, practitioners, policy makers and businesses in three workshops to co-produce best-practice guidelines to inform policy on natural process restoration; and 2) to disseminate these guidelines through direct engagement with stakeholders and through the creation of an online platform of resources. Rewilding Britain is a UK charity that aspires to see habitats expand, wildlife multiply, and communities flourish with new opportunities. An important ambition for Rewilding Britain is to work with the academic community to collate, synthesise and disseminate the best available research to their partners, government bodies, landowners and the public. They wish to use this collaboration to create and maintain an online 'Rewilding Knowledge Hub' to engage stakeholders and the public.While rewilding presents an exciting opportunity, it currently lacks a specific evidence base to properly assess its feasibility, value, risks and associated costs. There is, however, a considerable amount of relevant fundamental and applied conservation, ecology, ecohydrology, and socio-economics research that could aid the development of rewilding policy and best-practice. NERC has been an integral funder of much of this research. This Knowledge Exchange project will collate and synthesise the research of academic partners including Prof. Y. Malhi, Prof. D.W. Macdonald, Prof. W. Sutherland, Prof. R. Brazier, Prof. A. Newton, Dr. S. Carver, Dr. P. Jepson, and the applicant Dr. C.J. Sandom. This synthesised knowledge will serve as a primer for a two-way knowledge exchange with the project's practical and policy partners through two workshops on the approaches, value, risks and costs of rewilding. A third workshop will be dedicated to co-produce best-practice guidelines for natural process restoration. Project partners include Rewilding Britain, John Muir Trust, Wild Europe, Woodland Trust, and Conservation Capital. Through stakeholder engagement and the development of best-practice guidelines, land managers will be able to identify and select appropriate cost-effective actions to reinstate upland natural processes as a result of this project. This will result in nature-based socio-economic development in the uplands that cascades downstream with the flow of water.