How to assess the success of restoration planting

Abstract

To investigate the assessment of restoration success, we reviewed assessment program design, attributes to be restored, indicators for success assessment and criteria for determining success. Assessing the success of a restoration project is needed to advance both restoration management itself and the development of the science of restoration ecology. The assessment is performed by measuring the attributes correlated with the ecosystem structure and function. The success or failure of a project can be determined by examining the similarity of the plantings to naturally regenerating forests and the resilience of the restored sites. However, determining the success or failure within a short-term frame is extremely difficult due to the absence of any standard criteria for judging the success of the project. When the success of a restoration planting project needs to be assessed within a short-term time frame, only the success potential can be predicted, not the future success of the restoration itself. Nevertheless, restoration planting practices still include many arbitrary decisions in areas such as the selection of keystone species and the improvement of survival rates. In addition, after the assessment process is completed the restoration still proceeds with a high degree of uncertainty. Thus, continual monitoring of the restoration planting and hypothesis testing of the plantings are recommended. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.