ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the importance of and benefits from collaborations among restoration researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. It highlights some strategies for overcoming the challenges and bridging the infamous research-practice gap. The chapter describes that 'science-practice gap' was the second and third most frequently cited category of factors limiting the science and practice of restoration, respectively. Yet the continuing struggle to make collaborations work in complex social-ecological arenas such as restoration ecology has also led many authors to argue that no single discipline, paradigm or cookie-cutter approach can possibly address the diversity of challenges associated with accomplishing this task in the real world. After reviewing the prevalence and importance of the research-practice, or knowing-doing, gap in restoration ecology and other related applied sciences such as conservation biology and ecosystem management, suggest the first step towards addressing this problem is to simply acknowledge that it is real.
