Introduction

There have been previous edited volumes which provided a broad overview of the field of ecological restoration and which identified contemporary theory, practice and potential future directions for the field (Perrow and Davy 2002; van Andel and Aronson 2006). But the practice of ecological restoration and the science of restoration ecology are both rapidly evolving and much has changed in the past 10 to 15 years. In particular, we have become increasingly aware of the quickening pace of environmental change, a pace that threatens to continue to increase and which may indeed outpace our ability to restore some ecosystems. Thus this book was put together with the aim of both surveying current practice and identifying future opportunities and problems that will arise in our rapidly changing world.