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Given that few ecosystems on the Earth have been unaffected by humans, restoring them holds great promise for stemming the biodiversity crisis and ensuring ecosystem services are provided to humanity. Nonetheless, few studies have documented the recovery of ecosystems globally or the rates at which ecosystems recover. Even fewer have addressed the added benefit of actively restoring ecosystems versus allowing them to recover without human intervention following the cessation of a disturbance. Our meta-analysis of 400 studies worldwide that document recovery from large-scale disturbances, such as oil spills, agriculture and logging, suggests that though ecosystems are progressing towards recovery following disturbances, they rarely recover completely. This result reinforces conservation of intact ecosystems as a key strategy for protecting biodiversity. Recovery rates slowed down with time since the disturbance ended, suggesting that the final stages of recovery are the most challenging to achieve. Active restoration did not result in faster or more complete recovery than simply ending the disturbances ecosystems face. Our results on the added benefit of restoration must be interpreted cautiously, because few studies directly compared different restoration actions in the same location after the same disturbance. The lack of consistent value added of active restoration following disturbance suggests that passive recovery should be considered as a first option; if recovery is slow, then active restoration actions should be better tailored to overcome specific obstacles to recovery and achieve restoration goals. We call for a more strategic investment of limited restoration resources into innovative collaborative efforts between scientists, local communities and practitioners to develop restoration techniques that are ecologically, economically and socially viable.

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity and climate stability, but the political economy of deforestation and land-use change constantly challenges their integrity. In this article, we analyse 50 years of policy development in the municipality Marqués de Comillas, located in Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico, to understand how development and conservation priorities have evolved, interacted, and shaped land-use in a tropical forest frontier. By analysing peer-reviewed literature and empirical data, we identify five phases of policy continuity and change that have produced diverse socio-environmental outcomes. We reveal a persistent state-led prioritisation of rural development over environmental concerns, pursued through policies promoting settlements and agricultural expansion and exacerbated by external market forces. This focus has caused substantial ecosystem degradation and deforestation without significant livelihood improvements. Recent conservation initiatives, such as payment for ecosystem services, show potential for challenging the status quo by offering alternative livelihood opportunities benefiting both people and ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global forest restoration targets have been set, yet policy makers and land managers lack guiding principles on how to invest limited resources to achieve them. We conducted a meta-analysis of 166 studies in naturally regenerating and actively restored forests worldwide to answer: (1) To what extent do floral and faunal abundance and diversity and biogeochemical functions recover? (2) Does recovery vary as a function of past land use, time since restoration, forest region, or precipitation? (3) Does active restoration result in more complete or faster recovery than passive restoration? Overall, forests showed a high level of recovery, but the time to recovery depended on the metric type measured, past land use, and region. Abundance recovered quickly and completely, whereas diversity recovered slower in tropical than in temperate forests. Biogeochemical functions recovered more slowly after agriculture than after logging or mining. Formerly logged sites were mostly passively restored and generally recovered quickly. Mined sites were nearly always actively restored using a combination of planting and either soil amendments or recontouring topography, which resulted in rapid recovery of the metrics evaluated. Actively restoring former agricultural land, primarily by planting trees, did not result in consistently faster or more complete recovery than passively restored sites. Our results suggest that simply ending the land use is sufficient for forests to recover in many cases, but more studies are needed that directly compare the value added of active versus passive restoration strategies in the same system. Investments in active restoration should be evaluated relative to the past land use, the natural resilience of the system, and the specific objectives of each project.

We need empirical evidence on the impacts of land‐use change on hydrological processes to guide policies and land management decisions. Based on a global meta‐analysis of 287 primary studies covering 1049 data points in 58 countries and across 12 biomes, we review hydrologic process changes resulting from native forest disturbances and conversions to other land‐use types. Infiltration rates consistently fell over 50%, overland flow increased and evapotranspiration as a share of rainfall declined when native forests were disturbed or converted. Changes in total evapotranspiration, interception, and streamflow were less consistent in direction, while restored native forests returned infiltration function rates to pre‐conversion levels. Forests, and perhaps especially native forests, have a unique value in supporting and regulating hydrologic processes, as they can reduce erosion, improve water infiltration, and potentially enhance water supply, including in downwind locations. We thus underscore global calls for increasing the proportion of reforested areas with native species in landscape restoration planned for this decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: Aunque Argentina presenta un notable aumento en la comunidad académica, alcanzando el mayor número de personas investigadores per cápita de América Latina, la brecha de género sigue siendo evidente. El objetivo de este trabajo fue identificar y evaluar la evolución de los principales temas de investigación en ecología en Argentina durante los últimos veinte años para analizar si los estereotipos socales de género se reproducen en la selección de los temas de investigación. Se analizaron cuatro libros de resúmenes de la Reunione Argentinas de Ecología de los últimos veinte años y se identificó el género de l primer autor/la primera autora y de los y las coautores. Se utilizó el Procesamiento de Lenguaje Natural para analizar las asociaciones de género con las 16.319 palabras que aparecen en los 2.208 títulos de los resúmenes. El número medio de coautoras fue siempre mayor en los resúmenes de trabajos liderados por mujeres, aunque la proporción de coautoras respecto al total de autores aumentó más en los resúmenes de trabajos liderados por hombres. Los temas de investigación evolucionaron desde aquellos considerados pilares fundamentales de la ecología (por ejemplo, estudios poblacionales) hasta temas contemporáneos definidos por estudios de manejo y política. Las diferencias de género estuvieron presentes y cambiaron con el tiempo. En la actualidad, los hombres trabajan en temas de investigación relacionados con la toma de decisiones, mientras que las mujeres se enfocan en los procesos ambientales, por lo que es urgente crear más espacios de liderazgo para las mujeres con el fin de reducir las desigualdades de género. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Argentina harbours a notable increase in the academic community, achieving the highest number of researchers per capita in Latin America, the gender gap is still evident. The objective was to identify and evaluate the evolution of the main research themes in Argentinian ecology during the last 20 years to address whether social gender stereotypes were reproduced in research theme selection. We analysed four books of abstracts from the Argentinian Ecology conferences of the last 20 years and identified gender of the first author and co‐authors. Natural Language Processing approach was used to analyse gender associations with the 16 319 words appearing in the 2208 titles of abstracts. The average number of female co‐authors was always larger in female‐led abstracts although the proportion of female co‐authors/total authors increased the most in male‐led abstracts. Research themes evolved from those considered cornerstones of ecology (e.g. population‐oriented studies) to contemporary themes defined by Management and policy studies. Gender differences were present and changed with time. Currently, men work on research themes related to decision‐making, while women focus on environmental processes therefore it is urgent to create more leadership spaces for women to reduce gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing global attention on forest landscape restoration (FLR) as an integrated approach to enhancing environmental and human well‐being, the potential for leveraging monitoring to catalyze learning and improve management outcomes is not being fully realized. We assessed the extent to which collaborative monitoring, a process that embraces cross‐scale multilevel actors and interactions in the collection and use of information, is considered across FLR projects in Latin America by applying a diagnostic of 54 "success factors" scored from 1 (factor not in place) to 5 (factor fully in place). Responses were collected from 36 projects across 12 countries. Although respondents generally understood monitoring as crucial to FLR success, local participation scored as insufficient. Several of the lowest‐ranked success factors related to training for local people in the use of tools, forms, and technology for data collection, and to interpreting data to promote understanding of management outcomes. The most notable finding related to the paucity of networks or entities to leverage information into knowledge‐sharing and learning opportunities from the top‐down and the bottom‐up. Our results provide a preliminary indication of how to promote collaborative monitoring approaches in the context of FLR projects in Latin America. First, it requires enhanced integration among academics, local communities and governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Second, it requires a minimum level of harmonization with current policy and normative forest conservation and restoration instruments. Finally, it needs bridging organizations or individuals to share results and learning as well as dedicated resources for information infrastructures to facilitate knowledge sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategy of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration identifies three pathways for action for overcoming six global barriers thought to hamper upscaling. We evaluated 6,023 peer‐reviewed and gray literature papers published over the last two decades to map the information landscape underlying the barriers and associated pathways for action across world regions, terrestrial ecosystem types, restorative interventions and their outcomes. Overall, the literature addressed more the financial and legislative barriers than the technical and research‐related ones, supporting the view that social, economic and political factors hamper scaling up ecosystem restoration. Latin America, Africa, and North America were the most prominent regions in the literature, yet differed in the number of publications addressing each barrier. An overwhelming number of publications focused on forests (78%), while grasslands (6%), drylands (3%), and mangroves (2%) received less attention. Across the three pathways for action, the action lines on (1) promoting long‐term ecosystem restoration actions and monitoring and (2) education on restoration were the most underrepresented in the literature. In general, restorative interventions assessed rendered positive outcomes except those of a political, legislative or financial nature which reported negative or inconclusive outcomes. Our indicative assessment reveals critical information gaps on barriers, pathways, and types of restorative interventions across world regions, particularly related to specific social issues such as education for ecosystem restoration. Finally, we call for refining "strength of evidence" assessment frameworks that can systematically appraise, synthesize and integrate information on traditional and practitioner knowledge as two essential components for improving decision‐making in ecosystem restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]