Monitoring Revegetation Projects for Biodiversity in Rainforest Landscapes - Toolkit Version 1, Revision 1

Best Practice Monitoring Toolkit

John Kanowski and Carla P. Catterall

MTSRF Project 4.9.5 - Restoring tropical forest landscapes

ISBN 9781921359002
Published May 2007

Introduction

This monitoring toolkit has been written to assist landholders, community groups and restoration practitioners to monitor the outcomes of revegetation projects for biodiversity in rainforest landscapes.  In this instance, 'revegetation' refers to a range of on-ground works including the reforestation of cleared land and the enhancement or restoration of existing remnants.  The protocols outlined in this toolkit can be used to track the recovery of rainforest from disturbance events, such as tropical cyclones.  The toolkit was developed from research conducted in tropical and subtropical Australia with input from restoration practitioners and natural resource managers.

The monitoring toolkit was initially published by the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management in June 2006.

What has changed in this revision?

The monitoring toolkit was revised following feedback from users.  Changes are mostly to wording and explanations in an attempt to make the protocols and proformas easier to follow.  There have been no substantive changes to the monitoring protocols themselves.  The basic indicator data entry spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) has been revised to reflect amendments in the toolkit revision.

Scope of the toolkit

The toolkit includes protocols and proformas to monitor 'basic indicators' of the biodiversity outcomes of revegetation projects.  These are aspects of forest structure that provide information on the development of a revegetation project and are correlated with the use of revegetated sites by rainforest wildlife.  Users of the toolkit do not require specialist botanical or zoological knowledge, but do require basic field survey skills.

There are five sections to the monitoring toolkit:

1. Background information on monitoring and revegetation;

2. Information on the design of monitoring programs;

3. Proformas for recording the on-ground works carried out in a revegetation project;

4. Protocols and proformas for monitoring the 'basic indicators' of a revegetation project; and

5. Information on data management, analysis and evaluation.

Data entry, analysis and evaluation

A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet has been developed to accompany this version of the monitoring toolkit to help store, analyse and summarise the data collected from monitoring of revegetated sites.  The spreadsheet includes:

• A page of explanatory notes;

• Pages to record data from monitoring surveys of a revegetated site (a baseline survey and up to eight follow-up surveys);

• Pages to record data from surveys of (up to five) reference sites;

• A page which automatically summarises the data; and

• A page which produces graphs of trends in the revegetated site over time, and compares these trends with values recorded in reference sites.

For further information about the toolkit, contact the authors:

J.Kanowski@griffith.edu.au

C.Catterall@griffith.edu.au