Repairing the damaged world is a major theme for the 21st century. Bringing together decades of species and habitat conservation practice to restore ecosystems at the landscape level may be the big thinking we require. This book is a concise reference document that will help to guide this. Fundamental principles, such as the selection of a reference model and the integration of people as ecological influences in line with the ecosystem approach, are fully addressed. The book is organized with general introductory chapters covering essential background and principles, and with later chapters aimed at more experienced practitioners of ecological restoration. Throughout are scattered so-called virtual field trips, which provide excellent case studies of ecological restoration around the world. Also included as an Appendix are the Society for Ecological Restoration International's Guidelines for Developing and Managing Ecological Restoration Projects, 2nd Edition.

The chapter on ecological attributes of restored ecosystems is of particular interest in acknowledging the importance of restoring a full complement of species when undertaking ecological restoration. As the authors point out ‘the precautionary approach in ecological restoration would be to introduce as many of the original species as possible regardless of whether they are redundant'. This may increase the capacity of the restored ecosystem to respond to future environmental change should seemingly redundant species be better adapted to new environmental conditions. As the authors point out, ecological restoration returns an ecosystem to a previous state to the extent that the state can be ascertained and then approximated through restoration practice. At a time of global climate change we also need to build in resilience to future environmental conditions to the extent possible given uncertainty and our limited knowledge.

This concise publication packs in a lot of thought-provoking information on the relationship between people and the environment as well as providing practical guidance on project planning and implementation. As such it is a highly valuable reference work for all involved in the management of biodiversity, whether at the species or ecosystem level.