now provide

now provide information for restoration activities. • Forest fragments: Even quite unnatural forest fragments or remnant microhabitats can with care and caution, be used as partial surrogates in areas where full reference forests no longer exist. For instance, park land and hedgerows both contain important elements of natural forests in Western Europe and can help set targets for restoration. Similarly sacred sites, preserved for religious reasons, can contain species that have disappeared from the surrounding area, as in forest gardens and sacred groves in, for instance, Indonesia, Laos, China, Kenya, and Malawi. • Pollen analysis and soil microcarbon analysis: Analysis of pollen in peat cores, lake beds, or soil profiles can identify plants from thousands of years ago, as pollen is highly resistant to decay, particularly in the anaerobic conditions found in peat, and can often be identified to the level of individual species. Analysis along a core can show how vegetation changed over time, the presence and frequency of fires, and sometimes information about pollution. Such analysis is often the only sure way of building a picture of past vegetation where changes have been dramatic and living reference landscapes have disappeared. • Gap analysis using enduring features: This approach consists of a coarse-filter conservation assessment of protected areas based on a landscape approach using “enduring features” (essentially land forms or physical habitats) as geographic units that reflect biological diversity. The gap analysis involves three main stages. First, natural regional frameworks are reviewed to ensure that natural region boundaries reflect broad physiographic and climatic gradients. Next, within each natural region maps are used to identify enduring features. An enduring feature is a land form or landscape element or unit within a natural region characterised by relatively uniform origin of parent material, texture of parent material, and topographyrelief. Finally, the relationship of biodiversity to enduring features of the landscape 15. Identifying and Using Reference Landscapes for Restoration 113 is derived from more detailed tertiary sources. 145 4. Future Needs Although a lot of the tools are in place, there is still little experience in combining them to develop realistic targets for restoration exercises. Gaps go right back to the philosophical roots of restoration and at what is being aimed for—for example, original vegetation or just a workable ecosystem at the present time. Much better understanding of the likely process of forest restoration itself is needed, along with more accurate methods of measuring progress. References Broekmeyer, M.E.A., Vos, W., and Koop, H., eds. 1993. European Forest Reserves. Pudic Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Bryant, D., Nielsen, D., and Tangley, L. 1997.The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and economies on the edge. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC. Bunce, R.G.H. 1989. A Field Key for Classifying British Woodland Vegetation. Institute of Terrestrial Ecology and HMSO, London. Clark, J. 1992. The future for native logging in Australia. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies Working Paper 1992/1. The Australia National University, Canberra. Iacobelli, T., Kavanagh, K., and Rowe, S. 1994. A Protected Areas Gap Analysis Methodology: Planning for the Conservation of Biodiversity. World Wildlife Fund Canada, Toronto. Janzen, D.H. 2002. Tropical dry forest: Area de Conservación Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica. In: Perrow, M.R., Davy, A.J., eds. Handbook of Ecological Restoration, vol. 2, Restoration in Practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 559–583. Johnson, K.N., Franklin, J.F., Thomas, J.W., and Gordon, J. 1991. Alternatives to Late-Successional Forests of the Pacific Northwest. A Report to the US House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Luoma, J.R. 1999.The Hidden Forest:The Biography of an Ecosystem. Owl Books, New York. 145 Iacobelli et al, 1994.

114 N. Dudley Moussouris, Y., and Regato, P. 1999. Forest harvest: Mediterranean woodlands and the importance of non-timber forest products to forest conservation. Arborvitae supplement, WWF and IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. Peterken, G.F. 1996. Natural Woodland: Ecology and Conservation in Northern Temperate Regions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Peterken G. 2002. Reversing the Habitat Fragmentation of British Woodlands. WWF UK, Goldalming, UK. Rackham, O. 1976.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London.