Congratulations

2011 SER Award Recipients!

L-R: Dr. Steven N. Handel, Dr. Peter C. ‘Rocky’ Smiley Jr. and Kalemani Jo Mulongoy of the CBD at SER’s Gala Awards Dinner held in Merida, Mexico on August 23, 2011.

JOHN RIEGER AWARD: Peter C. ‘Rocky’ Smiley
Dr. Peter C. ‘Rocky’ Smiley is currently the president of the SER Midwest/Great Lakes (MWGL) Chapter and a research ecologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Station in Columbus, Ohio. He received a B.S. from Hiram College, M.S. from University of Mississippi, and Ph. D. from Mississippi State University. His contribution to the growth and development of SER has been tremendous. Most notably, Dr. Smiley is the savior and founder of the SER chapter in the U.S. Midwest. When he arrived at Columbus Ohio in 2005, the former Ohio Chapter of SER was defunct and dissolved. Through his leadership and dedication, Dr. Smiley has not only revitalized the Ohio Chapter but further expanded it to encompass the entire Great Lakes region. Formed in 2008, the MWGL Chapter now has more than 170 members and is among the most active and vibrant SER chapters. Rocky’s involvement in public programs also has been great. He was instrumental to organizing very successful annual chapter meetings in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He is also the current editor of the MWGL newsletter.

SER was founded in the Midwest (Madison, Wisconsin), and it is vital to SER that we have an active, vigorous chapter in that region to carry on the traditions established there when SER was founded.

THEODORE M. SPERRY AWARD: Steven N. Handel
Dr. Steven N. Handel has done more to promote the restoration of urban sites, especially highly degraded urban sites, than anyone working in North America and possibly the world.  He is a professor at Rutgers University and the director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE), a project jointly administered by Rutgers University and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City.

Steve is probably best known for his pioneering restoration work at the Fresh Kills Landfill site on Staten Island.  When Steve and colleagues from Rutgers began working there, it was an inhospitable place dominated by Mount Trashmore, a huge mound of urban refuse covered by a clay cap. The area was dominated by foul odors and seemed unlikely to support anything but a rather impoverished ecosystem controlled by weedy species.  Today, Fresh Kills is a recovering ecosystem with a large amount of native species. It functions as a biodiversity preserve and provides vital ecosystem services to the greater New York City area.  Additionally, it is being developed so that it will provide recreational opportunities for millions of nearby residents.  Steve has been involved with many other urban restoration projects including the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Duke Farms Foundation properties in New Jersey, the area in and around the 2008 Olympic Games campus in Beijing, a public park in Dublin, Ireland and the Orange County Great Park in California.  He is truly an international ambassador for the value of urban restoration.

COMMUNICATION AWARD:
Jesus Matos Mederos

Jesús Matos of Santa Clara, Cuba is a worthy winner on many counts. Seńor Matos was one of the founders, former presidents and foremost leaders of RIACRE (Red Iberoamericana y del Caribe de Restauración Ecológica). He was the main organizer of several conferences such as II Simposio Internacional sobre Restauración Ecológica in Santa Clara in 2007 and 2009. He has organized many courses in ecological restoration in Cuba, inviting professionals from Latin America, Spain and France to help teach and promote ecological restoration. He was the founder, and for many years main publisher and contributor, to the Boletín de la RIACRE. The Boletín was published regularly despite the fact that he did all of this work with almost no money for support. He has worked tirelessly to promote ecological restoration due to a genuine love and interest in ecological restoration and due to the generosity of his spirit. He has been an extremely influential voice promoting the value of ecological restoration throughout Latin America.

SPECIAL RECOGITION AWARD:
Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity
Occasionally the Society bestows a Special Recognition Award to recognize and applaud the efforts of an individual or organization that has been beneficial to the science and practice of ecological restoration, but whose activities do not fit the list of qualifications of our usual award categories.

The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity were selected as the winner of the 2011 Society for Ecological Restoration Special Recognition Award. With the Special Recognition Award, the Society recognizes the vital work conducted by the Convention on Biological Diversity in promoting both the preservation of biodiversity and the necessity of using ecological restoration as a way to assist with its preservation. In particular, the Society recognizes the CBD for it visionary 2011-2020 Strategic Plan. The CBD’s new Strategic Plan represents a significant advance in the way in which restoration is integrated into global policy on biodiversity. It provides a framework for national governments to combat biodiversity loss through, among other things, ensuring that the benefits of ecosystem services to all populations will be enhanced through a program of ecological restoration, with an emphasis on those areas that provide crucial ecosystem services to people.

The CBD Strategic Plan is comprised of a shared vision, mission, strategic goals and 20 ambitious yet achievable targets that are collectively known as the Aichi Targets. Two of these targets specifically call for action related to ecological restoration, as follows.

Target 14
By 2020, ecosystems that provide essential services, including services related to water, and contribute to health, livelihoods and well-being, are restored and safeguarded, taking into account the needs of women, indigenous and local communities, and the poor and vulnerable.

Target 15
By 2020, ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks has been enhanced, through conservation and restoration, including restoration of at least 15 per cent of degraded ecosystems, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to combating desertification.

By agreeing to these targets, parties to the convention have agreed to develop corresponding national and regional targets for restoration and to address these targets in their efforts to implement the objectives of the convention. These efforts are likely to lead to improved effectiveness and broader engagement in restoration activities worldwide as the global community embraces ecological restoration as a fundamental approach to combating biodiversity loss.