The final plenary of SER2025 explored coastal and marine restoration, from mangroves to coral reefs. The degradation of terrestrial ecosystems and inland waters is often very visible. Deforestation, degraded agricultural lands, drained wetlands, and eroded streams are evident even to the untrained eye. Many marine ecosystems, however, are by definition under the water, visible only to those who seek them out. And the impact of their degradation can be equally invisible.
Valuing socio-economic and other co-benefits of restoration
Valerie Hagger, an ecologist at the University of Queensland, has undertaken global studies on the drivers of mangrove loss to inform their conservation and restoration in complex socio-ecological systems. These ecosystems have a tremendous capacity to store carbon per unit area, but other benefits, such as biodiversity and social impacts, are harder to value and must take into account the local socio-economic context. This includes valuing the benefits for local communities that depend on these ecosystems.
The Best Practice Guidelines for Mangrove Restoration, developed by the Global Mangrove Alliance, offer one case study in Mexico of effective approaches for working with local communities. “These communities depend on the mangroves for shrimp farming, but the farming on the land degrades the mangroves. In order for the community to get on board with mangrove restoration, they need to be shown that the mangroves will increase shrimp yields.”
Support from local communities is key for securing project funding, with blue carbon credits being a common funding source for mangrove projects. Dr. Hagger describes these as a “means to an end…because coastal wetlands provide so much more. So it’s really important to evaluate the co-benefits [which can include] biodiversity, fisheries, water quality, and coastal protection…we also look at the potential for a traditional owner to lead carbon projects…and, then we estimate restoration feasibility, and, finally we do a big economic prioritisation analysis.”
Science is key to providing standards and metrics for biodiversity monitoring. “If we have more data on the biodiversity in these coastal wetlands, this will give us more evidence to conserve and protect them.”
Coral reef restoration – a story of love
Phanor Montoya-Maya is the restoration program manager at the Coral Reef Restoration Foundation in Florida. With global coral reefs under extreme pressure from mass bleaching and record-breaking ocean temperatures, Dr. Montoya asked the question many in the coral restoration community have been asking themselves – why bother?
Dr. Montoya charted an emotive story of his love for coral reefs, from his first dive in Colombia, to his current focus restoring reefs in the Florida Keys. “I am nervous speaking today because of the responsibility you have given me. I am representing an underrepresented ecosystem here. About 500 million people depend on an ecosystem that is on the brink of extinction in our generation.”
Dr. Montoya with his son during this plenary speech on day 4 of the conference.
“Small wins” and the power of community offer hope in the face of despair
In his years as a student, a researcher, and a practitioner, Dr. Montoya has witnessed the increasing frequency and intensity of mass bleaching events. “The 2023 – 2025 global bleaching event has affected 84% of the world’s reefs, with over 92% of the corals in the Great Barrier Reef experiencing some level of mortality…heat-driven bleaching is the equivalent of a wildfire.”
“Four times I have asked myself this question – why bother? And each time the answer has come from the same three places: my dive log, the data we gather, and the communities we serve.”
He talked about the small scientific wins and the community that offers hope and keeps him focused on researching ways to restore these vital ecosystems. In Tahiti, Colombia, and Papua New Guinea, he discovered corals thriving in very warm, extremely shallow waters, demonstrating the ways in which corals were adapting to changing conditions and providing rich seams for research into increasing reef resilience. The Coral Restoration consortium brings together more than 4,000 restoration practitioners worldwide to share knowledge, methods, and technologies to scale up restoration efforts. A community willing to take action, to share their successes and their failures. “These were people who, like me, were buying time for coral reefs.”
Science, logistics, and stubborn love
In 2023, the ocean got too hot, too fast, to the extent that NOAA had to completely change the coral reef watch alert scale to accommodate new temperatures. Almost 100% of wild reef colonies in the Florida Keys died. To the team’s surprise, however, 385 of the planted acropora had survived – a survival rate of 6.3%, which was almost three times higher than the regional average. This survival showed that something was working. All of the restoration work done over the years had made a difference. Further, there are demonstrable socio-economic reasons to carry out this work. Recent research has shown that every dollar invested in the Florida Keys in restoration creates an economic stimulus of $1.40 – $1.60 USD.
“Over three decades, I have learned that reef restoration is equal parts science, logistics, and stubborn love. Science tells us what to try next, the logistics lets us do it to scale, and love makes us go back after a hard lesson and do it better….even in the darkest conditions, nature can surprise us.”
SER Awards and Hackathon Winners
On the final day of SER2025, SER recognized outstanding contributions to the field through the SER Awards program and announced the overall winner of the SER Hackathon.
SER Communications Award
The SER Communications Award was presented to the #RestoreNature campaign, a collaboration by BirdLife, the European Environmental Bureau, and WWF. The campaign successfully mobilized support for the EU Nature Restoration Law demonstrating the power of communications to advance ecological restoration.
The acceptance video from the #RestoreNature team was screen at the day 4 morning plenary.
Bradshaw Medal
The Bradshaw Medal, awarded for outstanding papers published in, Restoration Ecology, honored two studies that significantly advanced restoration science:
Jake Robinson, Martin Breed, and Carlos Abrahams for The sound of restored soil: using ecoacoustics to measure soil biodiversity.
Frederick Asankom Dadzie, Angela Moles, Todd Erickson, Nathali de Lima Machado, and Miriam Muñoz-Rojas for Inoculating native microorganisms improved soil functions and altered the microbial composition of a degraded soil.
Student Awards
SER also recognized students for their outstanding poster and oral presentations at SER2025. Winners received $750 USD, with runners-up receiving $250.
Poster presentations:
Winner Emily Hamant for their poster “Stewardship Legacies and the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Threatened Prairie-Oak Landscapes”
Runner-up Alejandro Torres for their poster “Assessing Pollen Limitation of Four Native Wildflowers to Improve Prairie Restoration Success in Eastern Washington”
Honourable mention: Haley C. Monahan for their poster “Improving Pollinator Habitat through Manipulation of Priority Effects”
Oral presentations:
Winner: Molly Reichenborn for their presentation “Modifying dryland connectivity alongside herbicide application to restore herbaceous cover in shrub-encroached grasslands”
Runner up: Evie Furness for their presentation “To bury or not to bury? Improving the yield of seed-based seagrass restoration for the tropical species Thalassia hemprichii.”
Honourable mention: Benjamin Covington for their poster “Mossy medics: employing fire-moss pill capsules as first responders in post-fire soil restoration”
SER Hackathon Overall Winner Selected by Delegates
The first SER Hackathon brought together more than 75 participants worldwide to develop innovative solutions for ecological restoration. Delegates selected the “Integrated Monitoring, Reporting and, and Verification Kit for Riparian Restoration” project as the overall winner. Congratulations to Adeshola Kukoyi, Aruni Kadawatha, Dorothy Janick, Mae Whyte, Taryono Darusman, Zu Dienle Tan.
The awards and hackathon celebrated creativity, collaboration, and dedication to advancing the science and practice of ecological restoration.