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Basic Information
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Restoration Research
Recognizing that restoration choices by communities are based on more than engineering criteria, restoration research in ORD's National Risk Management Research Laboratory was broadened in 2003 to include development and application of tools to address socioeconomic issues. The program is collaborating with ORD's STAR grants program and the Canaan Valley Institute in West Virginia to develop and test frameworks for setting restoration priorities and evaluating the costs and benefits of restoration activities.
For more information: ESRP Poster #6 (PDF) (1 page, 443KB)
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
The second line of research to influence the ESRP's focus on conserving ecosystem services came from the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). 
The MEA is the most comprehensive report to date on the status and trends in ecosystem services; 1,200 scientists from around the world worked for four years to conduct this $20 million study. The study documented declines in 15 of 24 ecosystem services worldwide. Of particular note, the MEA concluded that:
“Even today's technology and knowledge can reduce considerably the human impact on ecosystems. They are unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until ecosystem services cease to be perceived as free and limitless, and their full value is taken into account.” (MEA 2005)
The MEA has had a major influence on the research and policy in many federal agencies, including the ESRP. In May 2007, the World Resources Institute (WRI, which initiated the MEA) released a follow-up report: Restoring Nature's Capital: An Action Agenda (PDF) (Restoring Nature's Capital, 2007) (100 pp, 3.16MB) . This action agenda includes many of the same research needs identified by the ESRP. These include developing ways to map the distribution of ecosystem services and to create tools to manage services within “ecosystem service districts.”