One question stayed with me after the first ERIP Restoration Action Planning Bootcamp workshop: how do we decide where restoration should begin?
Joining from Uzbekistan, I found the introduction to the UN Biodiversity Lab and ELSA useful. The demonstration using Brazil showed how different priorities, such as biodiversity and clean water, can influence the areas identified on a map. It made me think about how important it is to agree on our objectives before choosing sites.
The breakout exercise brought this closer to our own work. We were asked to describe a priority restoration area and consider three questions: Why this area? Who might disagree or be left out? What evidence supports choosing it?
These questions sound simple, but explaining our choices to someone unfamiliar with the project can reveal gaps in our reasoning or information. I appreciated that field observations and local knowledge counted alongside maps. People who use a landscape every day can help us understand what the data is showing—and what it might be missing.
For our ERIP child project in Uzbekistan, I see value in using these questions when discussing restoration priorities. From my communication and knowledge management perspective, they would also help us explain our project maps more clearly: why we selected an area, what we hope to achieve and what it could mean for local communities.
How is your team choosing priority restoration areas? Have spatial tools and community knowledge ever led you to reconsider an initial choice?