Aligning research status with stakeholder challenges and evidence needs for supporting river woodland restoration

River woodlands can play a critical role in supporting healthy and biodiverse riverscapes, providing essential ecosystem services such as flood mitigation, drought resilience, carbon storage, and biodiversity. In Scotland, 50% of national riparian length is designated as degraded, which underscores the urgency of restoring and conserving river woodlands. These ecosystems are pivotal in addressing the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change while supporting local resilience and livelihoods. However, the creation and conservation of such healthy and resilient river systems through enhanced riparian and floodplain management with woodlands in Scotland is held back by lack of evidence and complex trade-offs of benefits for multiple stakeholders.

This project aimed to address these challenges by working with diverse stakeholders—including restoration practitioners, businesses, policymakers, and researchers—across Scotland to (1) identify evidence gaps across key benefit areas including flood and drought mitigation, addressing water and air pollution, carbon storage, biodiversity, food and biomass production and utilisation, and health, wellbeing, heritage and community involvement  (2) appraise scientific evidence and stakeholder perceptions  for these key benefit areas and (3) and uncover evidence needs and other barriers to river woodland restoration practice.

Through a literature review and engagement with 115 stakeholders via surveys, workshops, interviews, and focus groups, we identified key gaps in knowledge, barriers and opportunities for progress. Our findings highlighted a need to:

• Integrate the quantification of the diverse benefits of river woodlands to optimise restoration designs and avoid unintended consequences.
• Have robust spatial baseline data on water quality and biodiversity for planning, while long-term pre- and post- intervention monitoring is critical for evaluating restoration outcomes.
• Acknowledge the role of place and scale (both in space and time), and thereby transferability of benefits, especially as data gaps persist for large-scale effects like downstream flood mitigation.

• Address challenges posed by grazing pressures, fragmented policy frameworks, limited financial incentives, and integration with agricultural systems that hinder large-scale implementation.

• Improve governmental targets for river woodland coverage and cross-sector collaboration to advance multifunctional river woodland landscapes.

• Build on the new stakeholder network created for improved alignment and efficient communication between stakeholder needs and research focus.

 

This project brought together a comprehensive understanding of diverse stakeholders' perceptions and priorities regarding river woodland restoration. It has provided a step-change towards the realisation of river woodland restoration by developing a new research agenda and setting out recommended pathways to address these and other barriers. Key pathways identified include developing integrated monitoring strategies, leveraging citizen science, and fostering engagement and communication to align efforts across sectors. Our multi-disciplinary approach provides a successful method that could be applied to support various other environmental restoration efforts that deliver long-term ecosystem, social and economic benefits.