“Restoring the earth will take an enormous international effort, one even larger and more demanding than the often-cited Marshall Plan that helped rebuild war-torn Europe and Japan. And such an initiative must be undertaken at wartime speed lest environmental deterioration translate into economic decline, just as it did for earlier civilizations that violated nature’s thresholds and ignored its deadlines.”
Lester Brown in Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

The Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER) and its partners from Latin America invite you to Merida, Mexico – in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula – August 21-25, 2011 for SER’s 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration. The SER2011 conference venue will be the Fiesta Americana and Holiday Inn, two large hotels across the street from each other. The theme of SER2011 is

Re-establishing the Link between Nature and Culture

SER2011 will be an important forum for addressing the global challenges of biodiversity and habitat loss, climate change, and sustainable development. It will provide a global venue for professionals, researchers, students and the public to come together, learn and share their knowledge and experiences, and identify practical solutions for restoring nature and sustaining critical ecosystem goods and services.

SER2011 will include the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research and new developments in the science and practice of ecological restoration as well as numerous exciting networking opportunities. The first SER conference was held in 1989, and until 2005, most conferences were held in North America or Europe. In 2005, the 1^st World Conference on Ecological Restoration was held in Zaragoza, Spain. Now scheduled every two years, the 2007 World Conference was held in San Jose, California. In 2009, the 3^rd World Conference was held in Perth, Australia.

SER2011 will feature world-renown keynote and plenary speakers, numerous symposia and training workshops, concurrent scientific sessions, and field trips. Past symposia and sessions have included topics such as:

• the role of restoration in mitigating and adapting to climate change;
• reinstating landscape connectivity and reducing fragmentation;
• threatened and endangered species, populations and habitats;
• restoring natural capital;
• environmental policy-making at the local, regional and national level;
• traditional ecological knowledge and community-based restoration.

SER2011 will bring together restoration professionals, researchers, and students from diverse backgrounds including the earth sciences, landscape architecture, ecological engineering, natural resource and land management, public policy and economics, and indigenous peoples and community organizers. It will provide a critical platform to assist us in defining the principles of restoration, understanding its methods and goals, and closing the gap between the science of restoration ecology and the practice of ecological restoration.