Ecological Restoration: the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed.

Al Unwin

Associate Dean, School of Environmental & Horticultural Studies

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Highlights: The key to restoration is to understand to what state do we want to restore the site and what is the history of the site (i.e. what lived there before).  The presentation will highlight a general overview with specific consideration to Niagara including the restoration of the Niagara Wetlands.

Alan Unwin became the Chair of the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) – a non-profit organization based out of Washington D.C in August 2015.  He has twice served as Chair of the organization’s world conferences. In 2001 the conference was held in Niagara Falls, Canada and focused on restoration across borders and was largely a bi-national effort in collaboration with US EPA’s great lakes office and the International Joint Commission.  In 2013, Alan chaired the organization’s 25^th anniversary world conference in Madison Wisconsin which attracted over 1500 attendees from over 60 countries worldwide.  Alan is only the third Canadian to have held the position of Chair of this prestigious organization.  SER continues to be very influential in regards to global restoration policy assisting and implementing restoration policy through its collaboration with international bodies such as the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.