DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rc0jn
title: Data from: The cost and feasibility of marine coastal restoration

description: Land-use change in the coastal zone has led to worldwide degradation of
 marine coastal ecosystems and a loss of the goods and services they
 provide. Restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an
 ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed and is critical
 for habitats where natural recovery is hindered. Uncertainties about
 restoration cost and feasibility can impede decisions on whether, what,
 how, where, and how much to restore. Here, we perform a synthesis of 235
 studies with 954 observations from restoration or rehabilitation projects
 of coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves, saltmarshes, and oyster reefs
 worldwide, and evaluate cost, survival of restored organisms, project
 duration, area, and techniques applied. Findings showed that while the
 median and average reported costs for restoration of one hectare of marine
 coastal habitat were around US$80 000 (2010) and US$1 600 000 (2010),
 respectively, the real total costs (median) are likely to be two to four
 times higher. Coral reefs and seagrass were among the most expensive
 ecosystems to restore. Mangrove restoration projects were typically the
 largest and the least expensive per hectare. Most marine coastal
 restoration projects were conducted in Australia, Europe, and USA, while
 total restoration costs were significantly (up to 30 times) cheaper in
 countries with developing economies. Community- or volunteer-based marine
 restoration projects usually have lower costs. Median survival of restored
 marine and coastal organisms, often assessed only within the first one to
 two years after restoration, was highest for saltmarshes (64.8%) and coral
 reefs (64.5%) and lowest for seagrass (38.0%). However, success rates
 reported in the scientific literature could be biased towards publishing
 successes rather than failures. The majority of restoration projects were
 short-lived and seldom reported monitoring costs. Restoration success
 depended primarily on the ecosystem, site selection, and techniques
 applied rather than on money spent. We need enhanced investment in both
 improving restoration practices and large-scale restoration.
description: Database on cost and
 feasibility of marine coastal restorationThis database represents
 the core part of the synthesis review "The cost and feasibility of
 marine coastal restoration". It contains information on cost and
 feasibility of restoration projects worldwide. The database is divided
 into five sections according to each investigated ecosystem: coral reefs,
 seagrass, mangroves, saltmarshes, and oyster reefs. Each
 ecosystem-specific database section contains the full reference, general
 information about the publication and project, the restoration action
 undertaken, species involved, location, a description on the type of cost
 reported, information on funding sources, project duration (in years), the
 area restored in hectare (ha), the converted restoration cost in 2010 US$
 ha-1, feasibility information (including reasons for success or failure),
 and restoration success in terms of % survival of restored organisms. For
 coral reefs, we also accounted for pre-transplant (i.e. survival of coral
 spat/larvae in culture before rearing them in nursery or out-planting),
 transplant (i.e. survival of coral fragments during nursery period),
 post-transplant (i.e. survival of coral fragments after out-planting to
 the reef) survival as well as for the overall survival averaged over the
 former three categories. See ‘Approach’ of the publication for a detailed
 database description and Table A1-A5 in Appendix A for a detailed summary
 of the database information.Restoration_database.zip