The current state-of-play

1
The current state-of-play protected areas

• Existing protected areas are not sufficiently
  comprehensive or adequate to achieve conservation
  targets.
• The degraded state of many rivers poses a
  practical barrier to effective implementation of
  conservation targets through the designation of
  protected areas.
• Restoration of some currently degraded ecosystems
  will be required to complement existing reserves.
• These bits in between are rarely considered in
  conservation planning

2
Aquatic ecosystem restoration.

• Most project small-scale, and rarely integrated
  with conservation programs to achieve specific
  biodiversity targets.
• Artificial distinction between conservation
  restoration
• Conservation biology and reserve selection
  principles a useful means of prioritising
  restoration activities, but rarely applied in
  aquatic ecosystems.

3
Principles for ecosystem restoration

• To be effective restoration must target the
  ecosystem level - the river and its surrounding
  catchment, and be based around well defined
  objectives.
• Lateral and longitudinal connectivity must be
  considered, both in restoring key processes and
  protecting restored areas from external threats.
• hydrologic alteration a major threat in most
  rivers
• Prioritisation should also consider
  metapopulation dynamics, redundancy, otogenetic
  habitat needs

4
Summary

• Restoration of degraded rivers provides a means
  of integrating protected area management and the
  bits in between to achieve biodiversity targets
  and maintain ecosystem structure function
• Protected areas, their management, and associated
  objectives frequently treated separately from
  restoration programs
• Disciplinary divides
• Implicit in many government portfolios/legislation
  
• Water/private/public land divisions especially
  protected public lands
• Conservation biology has already developed the
  necessary tools to identify priority sites for
  ecosystem restoration