Measuring the success of urban riparian revegetation projects using remnant vegetation as a reference community

摘要

The ecological success of restoration programs has rarely been assessed in Australia (Grayson et al. 1998), although there are some notable exceptions (Morgan 1999; Wilkins et al. 2003). This is surprising given the number of restoration projects, the large sums of public monies expended, and the many benefits of objective evaluation. For example, Bushcare, a national program of The Natural Heritage Trust, devoted $72 million to riparian revegetation during 1998-1999 (R. Cornhill pers. comm. 1999), and over the life of the 5-year program $348 million has been spent on revegetation projects and the protection of remnant vegetation across Australia (Centre for International Economics & CSIRO 1999). When 'in kind' contributions and expenditure by industry and other levels of government are included, this figure is likely to be much larger (Wilkins et al. 2003). The benefits of assessing the effectiveness of restoration projects include enabling the implementation of adaptive management, where acknowledged successes and failures allow refinement of restoration techniques at both project and program levels (Hobbs 2003) and reducing the potential for resource waste and the proliferation of ineffective restoration methods that may result incontinued system degradation (Grayson et al. 1998). Determining the success of revegetation projects is essential for the restoration of Australia's ecosystems and the growth of the revegetation industry. The application of scientific principles and methodologies to restoration projects is an important part of this process.