Forty years ago, ecological restoration was conceptualized through a natural science lens. Today, ecological restoration has evolved into a social and scientific concept. The duality of ecological restoration is acknowledged in guidance documents on the subject but is not apparent in its definition. Current definitions reflect our views about what ecological restoration does but not why we do it. This viewpoint does not give appropriate credit to contributions from social sciences, nor does it provide compelling goals for people with different motivating rationales to engage in or support restoration. In this study, I give a concise history of the conceptualization and definition of ecological restoration, and I propose an alternative definition and corresponding viewpoint on restoration goal-setting to meet twenty-first century scientific and public inquiry.

The Pressure-State-Response framework for environmental reporting was used as a basis to develop a long-term study of people's perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment. A postal survey of 2000 people, randomly drawn from the New Zealand electoral roll was used to gather data--an effective response rate of 48% was achieved. A range of different resource sectors was examined. We report on New Zealand's air, native animals and plants, and marine fisheries, as well as New Zealand compared to other developed countries. Respondents generally considered that in terms of pressures, states and responses, New Zealand was performing better than other developed countries and that for the resources examined here overall performance was in the adequate to good range, except for marine fisheries. The survey appears to be a useful tool for linking perceptions data into State of the Environment reporting. It also helps identify policy issues where perceptions do not match other scientific evidence or management initiatives. Such findings can be important for the successful implementation of policy measures.

Nowadays forestry faces a complex management situation; the understanding of sustainable forest management (SFM) has gone far beyond the original meaning of sustainable yield of timber. SFM strategies should fulfil ecological, economic and social functions without causing damage to other ecosystems. In this understanding, forest management actions cannot be seen as isolated or mono-causal. In this case study, indicators for SFM are arranged in a Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework at forest management unit level. This framework links pressures on the environment caused by human activities with changes of environmental state (condition) parameters. Forest management also responds to these changes by instituting environmental and economic measures to reduce pressures and restore natural resources. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) is utilized to evaluate the performance of four management strategies with regard to the PSR framework on SFM. Priorities of indicators and alternatives are modelled with the ANP resulting from the interconnections to other indicators and their respective cumulative importance. The approach allows for more detailed information on the network of human influences and their impacts on forest ecosystems and goes beyond the limitations of flat-dimensioned indicator sets.

Based on data from benthic trawling in Daya Bay between 2004 and 2015, the temporal and spatial characteristics of species composition and diversity were analyzed. A total of 429 species of marine animals were identified, belonging to 10 phyla, 16 classes, 175 families, and 309 genera. Species numbers varied between 75-114 in Daya Bay between 2004 and 2015. Chordata, Arthropoda, and Mollusca were the dominant phyla from 2004 to 2015, respectively. Species numbers showed a decreasing trend from 2004 to 2015. In the spring, the species number was higher in the western part of Daya Bay than the eastern region before 2007. More recently, the species number was higher in the mouth and the eastern parts of Daya Bay than the northern and western regions. In the summer, the species numbers increased in the southwestern region of the bay before 2008, but after 2009 results showed that the species number was higher in the mouth of the bay than the inner region. Timoclea imbricata or Paphia undulata were the first dominant species in spring. In summer, the first dominant species varied before 2007, but Turritella bacillum was the most dominant species after 2008. In autumn, Timoclea imbricata or Turritella bacillum was the first dominant species. The average Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H'), Pielou’s evenness index (J'), and species richness index (d) varied between 1.46-4.05, 0.30-0.89 and 2.49-6.69, respectively. Diversity decreased in Daya Bay between 2004 and 2015, especially in the northwestern area, mainly due to heavy anthropogenic activities. In recent years, the species resources of some areas of Daya Bay contribute mostly to the function of species diversity of the whole bay in the past, and benthic ecosystems have become more fragile.