Program > Workshops

W1 - The role of botanic gardens and plant conservation organizations supporting successful implementation of the EU National Restoration Regulation

Coordinator(s): Marcello De Vitis – Botanic Gardens Conservation International

Workshop type: round table

During this workshop, the moderator will give a short presentation to the participants and then will guide conversation and discussion among the participants through short sessions of thematic questions. The goal is to highlight the expertise of plant conservation organizations that uniquely position them to support the implementation of the NRR, and discuss together how to mobilize these skills to effectively contribute to restoration goals. 

W3 - The Coordination Crisis: Overcoming collaborative barriers to enhance ecosystem restoration

Coordinator(s): Benjamin Christ – Impact by Design, Sahar Stevenson-Jones – SER-Europe, Amielle DeWan – Impact by Design

Workshop type: highly interactive (roundtables)

This highly interactive workshop explores a critical question: What does effective collaboration actually require to deliver restoration outcomes at scale? Drawing on real-world alliances such as the European Marine Restoration Working Group and the Global Mangrove Alliance, professional facilitators and program managers will share practical lessons on neutral convening, governance design, strategic alignment, facilitation, and data coordination…the often-overlooked skills that make partnerships function.

Participants will engage in structured, interactive discussions to: 1) identify coordination gaps in their own work, 2) examine common barriers across institutions and sectors, 3) define the skills and capacities needed for success, and 4) explore potential opportunities for collaboration across the community. The session will culminate in actionable guidance and best practices for building partnerships that are durable, efficient, and outcome-driven, with a focus on harnessing global ambitions towards maximum impact

W4 - People-centered seascape approach to conservation

Coordinator(s): Robyn Morland, Amber Baker, Amelia Allerton – Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services

Workshop type: Interactive round table discussion.

This interactive and focused session will be led by the Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES) team and enable a small group of interested participants to learn about how ACES and partners are developing a people centered seascape approach in Vanga Bay, Kenya. We will explore common challenges of marine conservation activities, navigating the biodiversity market, and how communities can truly own pioneering projects. We will also highlight the importance of strong partnerships and networks by encouraging open dialogue between participants and a speed networking activity towards the end of the workshop for attendees to exchange contact details.

W5 - Coastal Challenge: a Serious Video Game for Coastal Resilience Decision-Making

Coordinator(s): Paola Tanguy – CMCC Foundation

Workshop type: Interactive game session.

This workshop presents Coastal Challenge, a serious video game developed by the CMCC Foundation within the EU-funded REST-COAST project, available online at https://game.rest-coast.eu. Designed as an interactive learning experience, the game invites participants to step into the role of a coastal decision-maker responsible for guiding their community over 30 years. Participants will explore the video game’s modules (a port city, a fishing and tourism town, and a coastal weltand farming area) in small groups, encouraging discussion, negotiation and peer-learning on different coastal adaptation strategies and solutions and their associated trade-offs.

W7 - Restoration philosophy and the is-ought dilemma

Coordinator(s): Darcy O’Connor – Northern Rivers Ecological, Derwent Catchment Project, Eden Project, CIEEM

Workshop type: interactive forum

Science is the study of reality. We collect premises about what exists in the world, the relationships and interactions at play, and what we can expect to occur in the future. These are positive premises – claims that describe how the world is.  But, as restoration ecologists, we err into the normative world. We make restoration decisions based on how we believe the world ought to be. In a light-hearted and engaging way, this workshop explores the is-ought dilemma and its implications for ecological restoration. We learn to embrace values-based decision making as a necessary aspect of good ecological restoration.

Coordinator(s): Liz Ballard & Berry Mulligan – Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme

Workshop type: interactive exchange

Bringing together examples from artists residencies from across Europe, the session will explore how place-based artistic practice can be catalytic in generating connection with and support for restoration projects. It will also consider how to measure the impact of engaged arts practice on people and restoration outcomes, including learning from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme.

W9 - Are we barking up the wrong tree? Possibilities of social-ecological visions and references in ecological restoration

Coordinator(s): Niclas Ruppert – University of Freiburg, Workshop type:  Knowledge-Café

Following a brief presentation on the topic, participants will discuss issues surrounding the limitations and possibilities of creating social-ecological visions and references in ecological restoration. This workshop is aimed at European restoration scholars and practitioners.

W11 - Assisted Natural Regeneration in carbon markets: field evidence, methodological integrity, and scaling pathways from tropical Latin America

Coordinator(s): Olivia Gumbel – NatureRe Capital

Workshop type: Interactive workshop combining short technical presentation and case study,  breakout group exercises, and plenary synthesis.

Through facilitated discussion, participants will engage with emerging questions around Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR)-specific methodologies, biodiversity monitoring, permanence, risk management, and collaboration with local communities. The workshop aims to foster critical dialogue between restoration scientists, practitioners, and finance actors, and to identify research gaps and best practices for advancing ANR within credible restoration and carbon frameworks.

W13 - Counting what counts: Building consensus toward a shared, universal set of restoration outcome measures in the Anthropocene

Coordinator(s): Stephen Murphy – University of Waterloo, Holly Jones – Northern Illinois University, Jens-Christian Svenning – Aarhus University

Workshop type: A short series of lightening talks from the organizers to set the context, the bulk of the 1h30 workshop will be small-group interactive discussions & and a concluding forum for whole-workshop discussion

Maximizing the outcomes of ecological restoration and rewilding requires robust and comparable ways of quantifying those outcomes. Ideally, a shared set of outcome measures and methods would enable efficient comparison across research and practice worldwide, yet such standardized approaches remain elusive—particularly as ecosystems increasingly depart from historical reference conditions. (…) This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners to explore whether broadly applicable and flexible outcome measures can be developed that remain meaningful in an increasingly novel Anthropocene, and to identify pathways.

W16 - Monitoring long-term restoration effects on biodiversity at a national scale

Coordinator(s): Merlin Schaefer – German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Mathias Scholz – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Michael Foerster – Luftbild Umwelt Planung GmbH (LUP)

Workshop type: Live brainstorming, round tables, plenary discussion.

This workshop will focus on three practical questions: (1) Which key long-term effects of restoration and NBS measures should be measured in different terrestrial ecosystems, especially forests, floodplains and peatlands? (2) Which biodiversity indicators are suitable for tracking them at national scale? (3) To what extent can existing monitoring programs, biodiversity databases, and remote sensing be used for large-scale long-term monitoring and evaluation of these parameters?

W17 - Reading the Language of Disturbance

Coordinator(s): Darcy O’Connor – Northern Rivers Ecological, Derwent Catchment Project, Eden Project, CIEEM, Harry Munt – Symbiosis, Save the House Sparrow (Founder), Tree Council, Eden Project, CIEEM

Workshop type: Initial lecture followed by interactive discussion activities

This workshop explores how disturbance ecology can be redefined as a friend of ecological restoration. Drawing on real-world experiences from both Australia and Europe, we unpack the incredible potential that disturbance, be it natural or human-induced, can offer assisted natural regeneration.

W18 - The Root Atlas Workshop: Visualizing Belowground Design

Coordinator(s): Rosmarie Lohnes & Dawn Slack – Helping Nature Heal Inc.

Workshop type: hands-on, participatory exercises where attendees will be actively involved—moving, manipulating materials, contributing ideas, and collaborating

This interactive event brings the Root Atlas and Root Recipes concepts to life, offering participants a hands-on exploration of belowground plant dynamics. Drawing on Lambton University case study data and real-time examples from our living shoreline projects, the session demonstrates how plant forms work together to stabilize soil and support ecological resilience.