Content of lectures: History and aims of the field; Target communities and ecosystems; Basic ecological principles as the background for successful restoration (theory of succession, metapopulations, species pool, relations between productivity and biodiversity, alien organisms, interactions among organisms, etc.); Methods of designing restoration projects; Examples from different types of ecosystems; Using spontaneous and directed succession in ecosystem restoration. Content of practices: Talks of students their own proposed projects on restoration of damaged ecosystems. One day excursion to a stone quarry, and restored calcareous grasslands.