Recording

The UN Decade of Restoration provides a valuable policy window to accelerate restoration science and implementation. Moving ahead, the responsibility of science, policy, finance and/or on-the-ground implementation, depends on the future leaders - current young researchers striving to create a resilient, adaptive, socially just and equitable future. Furthermore, many young researchers, especially doctoral students, face barriers related to lack of opportunities to present their research, access funding, engage in effective outreach, build collaborations and learn to deal with the pressures of research, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, it is vital that we share our knowledge and experiences and foster a community, who will in the future collaborate to address the big challenges of restoration science.  

In this session, we aim to provide a platform for doctoral students to showcase their research and vision for restoration science in tropical landscapes and to engage interactively with the tropical restoration community. 

The goals of this sessions are two-fold- (1) to build a community of young restoration science researchers working towards a sustainable future and (2) to present and share a vision for the future of tropical restoration science by interactively including the wider community of young researchers, underrepresented in the speaker panel. 

The objectives of this session are (1) to present research highlighting novel analyses of various aspects of restoration science in different tropical ecosystems and contexts and (2) give everyone, especially young researchers from the Global South, a platform to share their visions for the future of tropical restoration science using an interactive mind mapping tool and (3) synthesize the outcomes of the session and produce a peer reviewed conference paper on the vision of the young generation of restoration scientists and next steps for the upcoming UN decade of restoration. 

Together, we will present on advances, challenges and lessons learned in restoration science in tropical landscapes. We will present case studies encompassing mountains, agricultural landscapes and forests in the tropics. We will expose the audience to a range of methodologies including the use of remote sensing, functional ecology, field methodology and data, governance and market- based instruments that are advancing restoration science. Lastly, each presenter will conclude by presenting their vision for the future of tropical restoration.