Ecosystems worldwide are undergoing restoration at an unprecedented rate, with approximately 252 million hectares of land and sea currently being rehabilitated across 149 nations. This area, roughly the size of Kazakhstan, represents the largest documented restoration effort in history to date. The initiative has already generated more than one million green jobs globally as nature begins to recover.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), described the current situation as the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history. However, UNEP and partner agencies emphasized that significantly more action is required to meet global restoration targets. These findings were detailed in a report titled "Nature's comeback - Scaling ecosystem restoration for people and planet," launched on Thursday at the COP17 biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia.
The report marks the halfway point of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which concludes in 2030. It assesses progress toward a global commitment to restore around one billion hectares of land, an area comparable to the size of China, and to ensure that 30 per cent of the world's ecosystems are under conservation. These goals align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed upon in 2022.
To achieve these objectives, rapid acceleration is necessary, particularly within freshwater, marine, and coastal ecosystems. The report indicates that annual funding for restoration must increase more than fourfold, rising from $64 billion to $296 billion. This level of investment could potentially create up to 32 million jobs worldwide by the end of the decade.
Dongyu Qu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which co-published the report alongside UNEP and the UN biodiversity secretariat, stated that five years into the UN Decade, the message is clear: restoration works. He noted that the primary challenges involve integrating restoration into the sustainable management of land, water, and natural resources, as well as transforming agrifood systems coherently.
Restoring nature is identified as essential for food and water security, climate resilience, employment, and overall wellbeing. Research suggests that restoring just 15 per cent of global priority areas could prevent 60 per cent of projected species extinctions while sequestering 30 per cent of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. Despite these benefits, progress remains variable; while terrestrial ecosystem restoration has reached nearly half of the 30 per cent target, marine and coastal restoration efforts have been far more limited.
The report stresses that restoration efforts must be sustained long enough to enable both ecosystem recovery and biodiversity return while delivering lasting benefits for communities. Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, warned that governments cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while destroying it with the other. She called on governments to address the drivers of ecosystem degradation and invest in monitoring mechanisms to ensure the durability of the restoration movement.
Sources: UN News English.