As Good as (G)Old? Comparing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Restored and Natural Mangrove Forests in the Wallacea Region (CoReNat)

红树林是连接陆地和海洋景观的独特潮间带生态系统。它们为陆地和海洋物种提供栖息地，维持全球数百万人（大多数是穷人）的生计，并因其非凡的碳汇能力而被视为气候变化减缓战略的高度优先生境。红树林在全球范围内退化，土地使用的变化是目前最严重的威胁。成功地恢复/复原多样、功能性、资源丰富和有复原力的红树林是包括印度尼西亚在内的许多国家的一项重大发展挑战。所谓的蓝色革命-在80年代和90年代将红树林转变为（不可持续的）水产养殖池塘-是该国在过去三十年中失去40%红树林的主要原因之一。这给人们的生活造成了多方面的问题。制止和扭转印度尼西亚红树林自然资产的损失是改善沿海生计和减少贫困的关键。印尼政府目前每年花费约1300万美元在退化地区种植红树林。印度尼西亚和世界其他地方的大多数种植项目都失败了，原因大多是可以理解的。然而，在理解“成功”项目在重建多样化和功能性的自组织和自维护系统方面有多成功方面存在许多关键的信息差距。COReNat将调查印度尼西亚北苏拉威西岛Wallacea中心地区已建立的以社区为基础的红树林恢复/复原（R/R）项目的成果，以弄清这些红树林是否“与（G）老一样好？".项目的总体目标是评估红树林生态系统的生物多样性、功能、复原力和服务提供是否已经恢复，并提出循证建议，以使Wallacea（及其他地区）今后的恢复/再恢复努力取得最大成功。结合英国和印度尼西亚的经验，专业知识和科学优势，CoReNat将为相关利益相关者提供基于证据的建议，以指导未来的生态R/R工作。CoReNat采用新颖的跨学科方法，对已恢复/恢复的和邻近的自然生态系统进行全面的生态系统评估。红树林，汇集了古生态学，地球科学，植物学，动物学，环境微生物学，生态网络分析结合下一代测序、毒理学和生物探索。CoReNat将提供有关该地区（与红树林有关的）生物多样性和物种之间的相互作用，用于养护和恢复/恢复的红树林-在红树林恢复领域应用和产生创新的新工具-提供数据，以便更好地了解生物多样性，单种与多种重新种植的红树林的功能和服务-支持提供保护红树林的解决办法，恢复/恢复和管理-探索当地目前对保护和恢复的红树林的利用，以及潜在的商业和创新新途径，以帮助印度尼西亚平衡保护与经济发展的需要

Mangrove forests are unique intertidal ecosystems connecting the land- and seascape. They provide habitat to terrestrial and marine species, sustain the livelihoods of millions of mostly poor people globally, and are considered as high priority habitats in climate change mitigation strategies, due to their extraordinary carbon sink capacity. Mangroves forests are degraded globally, with land use change being the single most serious threat at present. Successful restoration/rehabilitation of diverse, functional, resource-rich and resilient mangrove forests is a major development challenge in many countries, including Indonesia. The so called Blue Revolution - the conversion of mangroves to (unsustainable) aquaculture ponds in the 80s and 90s - is one major reason why the country has lost 40% of its mangroves over the last three decades. This has caused manifold problems for people's lives. Halting and reversing Indonesia's loss of mangrove natural assets is key to improve coastal livelihoods and reduce poverty. The Indonesian government currently spends around $13 million a year for planting mangroves on degraded areas. Most planting projects in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world have failed, and it is mostly understood why. There are however numerous critical information gaps in understanding how successful the "successful" projects are in regards to recreating diverse and functional self-organising and self-maintaining systems. CoReNat will investigate outcomes of established community-based mangrove restoration/ rehabilitation (R/R) projects in the heart of Wallacea - North-Sulawesi - Indonesia, to unravel whether these mangroves are "As good as (G)Old?". The overall project aims are to assess whether mangrove ecosystem biodiversity, functions, resilience and service provision have been restored, and to make evidence-based recommendations for maximizing the success of future R/R efforts in Wallacea (and beyond). Combining UK and Indonesian experience, expertise and scientific excellence, CoReNat will provide evidence-based recommendations to relevant stakeholder to guide future ecological R/R efforts.CoReNat takes a novel interdisciplinary approach to deliver a comprehensive ecosystem evaluation of established restored/rehabilitated and adjacent natural (reference) mangroves, bringing together paleoecology, geoscience, botany, zoology, environmental microbiology, ecological network analysis combined with next generation sequencing, toxicology and bioexploration. CoReNat will - provide new data on the region's (mangrove-associated) biodiversity and species interactions, for conserved as well as for rehabilitated/restored mangrove forests- apply and generate innovative new tools for the field of mangrove restoration- provide data that will allow a better understanding of the biodiversity, functioning and services of mono-specific versus multi-specific replanted mangroves- support the provision of solutions to mangrove conservation, restoration/ rehabilitation and management- explore current local use of conserved and restored mangroves, as well as potential new avenues for business and innovation, to help balance Indonesia's need for conservation with economic development