Restoring Natural Ecologies 2025

A co-creation workshop:

• Examples of digital tools
• Share your own experiences
• Build a whitepaper or resource of what’s out there and what more we should build together

Grounded in theory

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Designed for practice

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

Finding a reference ecosystem for a restoration site

Point me to a reference site for this location?

• ERA Knowledge and Resources Desk is preparing reference information for each ecoregion

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• But the given ecoregions are too large. How can we break them into sub-ecoregions?

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• Current status
• 51 Level-3 ecoregions in India
• USA has documented 600+ habitat types!

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• Work in progress using ML, etc.

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Can we also go the other way?

• Given a reference site, find other locations similar to it

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• Concerns with restoration potential maps:
• Generalizability of top-down rules: Maps are not customizable by users
• Restoration ~ Afforestation or Greening: Need more context-awareness

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• CoRE stack toolkit: Enable bottom-up development of rules

Reference restoration site

Prospective restoration sites?

(rules to find locations which today look like what the restoration site looked back then)

Now

Start year

(and what it could look like (now - start) time later)

Identification of prospective restoration sites

Demo of Google Earth Applications!

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Given a reference restoration site, find other sites similar to it

Step 1: App to build rules

Step 2: App to publish your rules

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

Baseline Data Collection For Restoration - Why?

•Before restoration information – for Pre and Post comparison, and tracking progress

•Extent of degradation for all parameters

•Where should the effort be invested for restoration - spatially

•How much effort should be invested for restoration – quantitative and qualitative, and financial outlay

•For certification processes such as TGBS, etc

Selecting possible tools

Biological data capture

• eBird
• Merlin
• iNaturalist
• Observation.org
• FrogWatch
• HerpMapper
• PlantNet
• PlantWise
• Biotik
• Bat EchoMon

Abiotic Data capture using IoT sensors

SoilSens

Mapping tools

• Google Earth
• Locus
• OSMand
• GPS Mapcamera

Platforms

• GBIF – for reference datasets and sites
• RESTOR – for uploading and monitoring site specific information

Case Study

Chhatrasagar reservoir near Nimaaj, Rajasthan

780 acres site

Highly invaded with Prosopis juliflora

Originally a grassland, now a woodland

Baseline surveys conducted for

• LULC mapping – satellite and drone
• Vegetation, mammals, birds, insects, spiders, fish
• Soil
• Water

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

• 6 Key Attributes (outside)
• 21 Sub-attributes (a-u)

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Each Sub-attribute is given a rating for baseline and current conditions according to the

Five-star System, where 5★ represents the reference model conditions.

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Ecological Recovery Wheel

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

Why PlantWise?

Most evergreen trees are rare in Western Ghats even in PAs

Only 30% of potential suitable habitats are under PA network

Only 37% of tree species in NWG represented in local nurseries

• Nursery survey (9 nurseries) by Dr. Ankur Patwardhan

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• 590 species were recorded in nursery

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• 105 species from Western Ghats

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• Only 82 species from northern Western Ghats

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• 37% of total evergreen tree species

PlantWise

14,000+ occurrence records 359 native species

Output

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

We often view the world through countries, states, and provinces, but there’s another way to understand our planet: through the lens of life and ecology.

Realms, biomes, bioregions, and ecoregions form a hierarchical framework that classifies Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems, revealing the natural patterns that shape our environment.

Realms contain bioregions, bioregions are composed of ecoregions, and biomes provide the broad ecological template used to subdivide realms into bioregions.

ERA-India Knowledge & Resource Desk

One Earth Classification System

One Earth

Classification System

ERA-India Knowledge & Resource Desk

• Germination Protocol Database

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• Nurseries

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• Reference sites
• Flora species lists
• Fauna species lists
• Keystone indicator species
• Characteristic observations

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

Currently geared more towards building NRM plans at the village level. Customize to do it at a site level.

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

Work in progress: Hydrological simulations for more precise impact projection

Number of weeks of water availability in farm pond

Which well and farm ponds will benefit from recharge from checkdams?

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

What is The Global Biodiversity Standard?

Recognising projects that protect, enhance and restore biodiversity

• The Global Biodiversity Standard is:
• A standard for best practice implementation of biodiverse nature-based solutions
• A high-integrity, outcome-focused, independent site-based certification
• A mentoring programme to improve outcomes for biodiversity, ecosystems, and local communities
• Developed by a worldwide coalition of global experts

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TGBS Hub Partners

TGBS is supported by a global network of >200 certified assessors from institutions with local biodiversity expertise

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How the Assessment Process

was developed

1. Two years of intensive research and development
2. Rigorous technical consultation with input from >40 independent experts.
3. Methodology tested on >100 sites in 6 biodiverse countries on 3 Continents to date.
4. Methodology based on measuring changes to biodiversity (based on SER ecological recovery wheel)
5. Social benefits assessment developed by Plan Vivo and TRAFFIC (based on SER social benefits wheel)
6. Assessment of adaptive management (based on UN Decade Standards of Practice)
7. Manual published in English. Translations being prepared in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
8. Field app to standardise assessment and reporting
9. 200 trained and certified assessors

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BASELINE

CURRENT

REFERENCE MODEL

DATA COLLECTION

• Project’s baseline studies & records
• Surveys of proxy sites (similar condition as baseline)
• Discussions and Interview with stakeholders
• Remote Sensing & Historical data

• Project’s implementation & monitoring records
• Rapid biodiversity surveys
• Discussions and Interview with stakeholders
• Direct observation & evidence
• Automated devices
• Remote Sensing, mapping

• Reference site survey information
• Historical archives
• Indigenous and local ecological knowledge
• Consultation with stakeholders
• Scientific studies

Certification process

Overview

• Text goes here

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Objective scoring against 8 biodiversity criteria

Each criterion scored out of 10 points

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Ecosystem Integrity

Adapted the SER Five-star System and Ecosystem Recovery Wheel (ERW)

Robust Management List

Adapted from the Social Benefits Wheel

5-star level of Protection Ratings

Four Sections of Assessment – The 8 Criteria

The Global Biodiversity Standard

��Protect, Enhance, Restore​�

info@biodiversitystandard.org

www.biodiversitystandard.org

A restoration project lifecycle

Prospective sites: CoRE stack toolkit

Experiences with eBird, iNat, drone-based data collection

Ecological Recovery Wheel

Plantwise: Tree species selection

Commons Connect: Soil and water conservation

The Global Biodiversity Standard

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack toolkit

ERA resources

Community engagement

Ongoing landscape stewardship: Gram Vaani, Commons Connect

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

1. Stratification using spectral data (NDVI time series in a year) -- 4 strata in Sanjay Van
2. Site selection of 4 spots: Deeper trails
3. Song Meter devices recording audio with a 2:4 duty cycle (2min record, 4min sleep)
4. Forthcoming analysis is over a 2 week data collection from July 20 to Aug 3, 2025

Site selection and device setup

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Spot 1: Diverse deciduous trees. Stream close by

Spot 2: At a higher elevation. Waterbody about 100m away downstream

Spot 3: Mostly acacia trees. Also lantana in the vicinity. Crickets

Spot 4: Close to a new growth area. Young trees

Chudail papdi, amaltas, acacia, bamboo

Also a picnic spot

Super dense understory during rains

Diverse deciduous trees coming up

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

• 103 species also on eBird list

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• 198 species found by ML but not on eBird – low frequency – throw away

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• 119 species on eBird but not found by ML – more training samples needed for these species, or seasonal absence

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

• Acoustic complexity index – how rapidly does sound activity vary over time – dynamic biological activity vs. steady sounds
• Clustered level of sound – concentrated in time or spread apart
• Acoustic diversity index – diverse sounds distributed across frequencies
• Normalized difference soundscape index – natural sounds or human sounds
• Midfrequency cover – more activity in frequency range of insects and birds

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Spot 1: Less diverse but more complex in Morning, more diverse and complex in Day, more diverse but less complex in Evening. Boring Night

Spot 2: Less diverse and complex in general, but Morning, Day show less clustered activity than Evening, Night

Spot 3: More diverse in Night, more complex in Day, Evening. Boring Morning

Spot 4: Night, Evening have more clustered activity, Morning is more complex. Boring Evening

Morning

Day

Evening

Night

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

High complexity => some specific birds

High diversity => different birds/insects

Spot 1

Spot 2

Spot 3

Spot 4

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Demo of toolkit

Github repo

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Clustering of delineated tree crown images

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

Spot_1

Spot_2

Spot_3

Large leaves, chunky canopies – Amaltas, Chudail papdi, Semal

Thin leaves, spines – Subabool, Vilayati Kikar, Jhand

Continuous ecological monitoring: CoRE stack restoration toolkit

🡨 Distortions

Altitude fluctuations in georeferenced images 🡪

Raw images do not overlay precisely

Tree crowns detected do not exactly match with each other upon consecutive drone runs

Ecological monitoring using satellite data: Know Your Landscape dashboard

https://www.explorer.core-stack.org/

Terrain

Tree cover: Year on year changes

Seasonal surface water presence

Q&A and breakout groups

Group 1: What tools do you use? What do you think is missing?

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Group 3: Explore a deeper dive with the tools that were presented. What do you think is missing?

Group 2: New kinds of tools or use-cases you would like to suggest? Pointers to get started?

Couple it with voice-based advisories and question-answering

• Integrated IVR advisory for improved maintenance and productivity of existing and new assets
• Work demand registration under NREGA
• Community information sharing
• Grievance registration for social accountability

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• Further extensions: Climate-friendly agricultural practices – natural farming, crop rotation, no-till agriculture, natural fertilizers