Global climate change is recognized as a threat to species survival and the health of natural systems. Scientists worldwide are looking at the ecological and hydrological impacts resulting from climate change. Climate change will make future efforts to restore and manage wetlands more complex. Wetland systems are vulnerable to changes in quantity and quality of their water supply, and it is expected that climate change will have a pronounced effect on wetlands through alterations in hydrological regimes with great global variability. Wetland habitat responses to climate change and the implications for restoration will be realized differently on a regional and mega-watershed level, making it important to recognize that specific restoration and management plans will require examination by habitat. Floodplains, mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes, arctic wetlands, peatlands, freshwater marshes and forests are very diverse habitats, with different stressors and hence different management and restoration techniques are needed. The Sundarban (Bangladesh and India), Mekong river delta (Vietnam), and southern Ontario (Canada) are examples of major wetland complexes where the effects of climate change are evolving in different ways. Thus, successful long term restoration and management of these systems will hinge on how we choose to respond to the effects of climate change. How will we choose priorities for restoration and research? Will enough water be available to rehabilitate currently damaged, waterstarved wetland ecosystems? This is a policy paper originally produced at the request of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and incorporates opinion, interpretation and scientific-based arguments.

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism has the potential to provide the developing nations with significant funding for forest restoration activities that contribute to climate change mitigation, sustainable management, and carbonstock enhancement. In order to stimulate and inform discussion on the role of ecological restoration within REDD+, we outline opportunities for and challenges to using science-based restoration projects and programs to meet REDD+ goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and storing carbon in forest ecosystems. Now that the REDD+ mechanism, which is not yet operational, has expanded beyond a sole focus on activities that affect carbon budgets to also include those that enhance ecosystem services and deliver other co-benefits to biodiversity and communities, forest restoration could play an increasingly important role. However, in many nations, there is a lack of practical tools and guidance for implementing effective restoration projects and programs that will sequester carbon and at the same time improve the integrity and resilience of forest ecosystems. Restoration scientists and practitioners should continue to engage with potential REDD+ donors and recipients to ensure that funding is targeted at projects and programs with ecologically sound designs.

As the nation's acreage of productive freshwater marsh/wetlands continues to decrease the need for successful marsh restoration/reclamation increases.

The project site consists of 148 hectares of phosphate mined land of which 61 hectares of wetlands and 87 hectares of contiguous uplands were reclaimed in 19BI/82. The wetlands were designed to create freshwater marsh, hardwood swamp, and open water habitats.Approximately 55,000 trees (12 wetland species) were planted.Marsh was established using topsoil (seed banks) and overburden materials. Intensive monitoring (line strip method) determined tree seedlings s~r~iva] and condition as a function of material type (bareroot, tubelings, etc), season, and water depth.An overall survival rate the first year of 77% plus a trend for a 5% increase in root sprouting individuals indicate that overall seedling mortality in the reclamation area may be relatively small. Measurements on mean change in height were made to determine growth rate of seedlings and to assess seedling stress.The overall survival for all species planted remained relatively constant during the first year and the proportion of normal and stressed plants remained relatively constant as well.There is considerable competitive growth of Some marsh plants that appear to retard seedling growth and/or survival. However, if seedlings are successful in surviving under this competition, their growth rate appears to be high. Topsoil additions have been a successful means of establishing a marsh system within the site. This technique shows distinct advantages over natural revegetation in terms of species composition and control of nuisance species.

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