Becoming #GenerationRestoration

ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION FORPEOPLE, NATURE AND CLIMATE© 2021 United Nations Environment Programme
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Suggested citation
United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate. Nairobi.
Production
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
https://www.unep.org/resources/ecosystem-restoration-people-nature-climate
Supported by:
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this report, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for technical review and data provision.

Acknowledgements
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) would like to thank the members of the Steering Committee, the lead and contributing authors,
the peer reviewers, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Science Task Force, led by IUCN, and the partner organizations of the UN Decade for theircontributions to the preparation of this report.
Steering Committee
Luc Gnacadja, Enric Sala, Anne Tolvanen, Tim Christophersen, Mette Wilkie, Tiina Vähänen, Edoardo ZandriPeer reviewers
Mike Acreman (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), Angela Andrade (Conservation International, Colombia), Robin Chazdon (World Resources Institute),
Lars Hein (Wageningen University), Carlos Joly (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership), James Kairo (Kenya Marine and Fisheries ResearchInstitute), Sam Kanyamibwa (Albertine Rift Conservation Society), Ritesh Kumar (Wetlands International, South Asia), James Mayers (International Institutefor Environment and Development), Bernardo Strassburg (International Institute for Sustainability), Ruth Waters (Natural England)
Writing team
Lead authors: Barney Dickson, Lera Miles, Hazel Thornton, Erin O’Connell
Contributing authors: Raquel Agra, Oliver Baines, Holly Brooks, Megan Critchley, Helen Klimmek, Annika Schlemm, Boipelo Tshwene-Mauchaza

FOREWORD

The world is facing severe challenges. Billions of people around the world are suffering the consequencesof the climate emergency, food and water insecurity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecosystems are an
indispensable ally as we meet these challenges. Protecting them and managing their resources in asustainable manner is essential. But just increasing the protection and sustainable management of ourremaining natural landscapes and oceans will not be enough: the planet’s degraded ecosystems and the hugebenefits that they provide must also be restored.
By declaring the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, governments have recognized the need to prevent,halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide for the benefit of both people and nature. The
2021–2030 timeline underlines the urgency of the task. Without a powerful 10-year drive for restoration, we
can neither achieve the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, nor the Sustainable Development Goals.
This report presents the case for why we all must throw our weight behind a global restoration effort.
Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, it explains the crucial role played by ecosystems from forests andfarmland to rivers and oceans, and charts the losses that result from our poor stewardship of the planet.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration provides a unique opportunity to transform food, fibre and feed
production systems to meet the needs of the 21st century, and to eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
This we seek to achieve through effective and innovative landscapes and seascapes management thatprevents and halts degradation, and restores degraded ecosystems. The restoration of forest landscapes,
farming, livestock and fish-producing ecosystems should primarily contribute to restoring them to a healthyand stable state, so that they are able to provide ecosystems services and support human needs forsustainable production and livelihoods.
For example, around one third of the world’s farmland is degraded, about 87 per cent of inland wetlands
worldwide have disappeared since 1700, and one third of commercial fish species are overexploited.
Degradation is already affecting the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people – that is 40 per cent of theworld’s population. Every single year, we lose ecosystem services worth more than 10 per cent of our global
economic output.
If we can manage to reverse this trend, massive gains await us. Reviving ecosystems and other natural
solutions could contribute over one third of the total climate mitigation needed by 2030. Restoration canalso curb the risk of mass species extinctions and future pandemics. Agroforestry alone could increase foodsecurity for 1.3 billion people.
Restoration on a global scale requires sustained investments. But there is growing evidence that it
more than pays for itself. For example, restoring coral reefs to good health by 2030 could yield an extra
USD 2.5 billion a year for both Mesoamerica and Indonesia; having doubled its forest cover since the 1980s,
Costa Rica has seen ecotourism grow to account for 6 per cent of GDP.
While restoration science is a youthful discipline, we already have the knowledge and tools we need to halt
degradation and restore ecosystems. Farmers, for instance, can draw on proven restorative practices suchas sustainable farming and agroforestry. Landscape approaches that give all stakeholders – including
women and minorities – a say in decision-making are simultaneously supporting social and economic
development and ecosystem health. And policy makers and financial institutions are realizing the huge needand potential for green investment.

The United Nations stands behind this crucial initiative. As well as contributing research to this report, theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) along with
their partners will provide leadership, coordination and technical support throughout the UN Decade.
International cooperation can help countries to implement their existing restoration pledges, which cover
more than 1 billion hectares, an area bigger than China. Global meetings on climate and biodiversity slated
for later this year are an opportunity for governments to increase their ambition further, and to force thepace of implementation. But long-term success will depend on the UN Decade realizing its overarchinggoal of catalysing a global movement that outgrows and outlives the 10-year timeframe. By engaging in
restoration, everyone – from governments and businesses to civil society groups and individuals – cancontribute towards resetting our relationship with nature.

Inger Andersen

Dr. Qu Dongyu

United Nations Under Secretary Generaland Executive Director at United Nations
Environment Programme

Director General at Food and Agriculture
Organization

CONTENTS
Foreword												Key messages												021. Introduction											052. What is happening to the world’s ecosystems							092.1 Farmlands											112.2 Forests												122.3 Freshwater											122.4 Grasslands, shrublands and savannahs								132.5 Mountains											132.6 Oceans and coasts										142.7 Peatlands											152.8 Urban areas											163. Why restoration is necessary									173.1 The economy											203.2 Food security											213.3 Clean water											223.4 Health and well-being										233.5 Climate change mitigation									233.6 Climate change adaptation									253.7 Security											253.8 Biodiversity											263.9 Synergies and trade-offs									284. Restoring ecosystems										294.1 Approaches, principles and tools for restoration							304.2 Broader conditions needed for successful ecosystem restoration				35
5. How the UN Decade works										375.1 Objectives for the UN Decade									385.2 Mandate, structure and strategy									385.3 Supporting the development of a global movement						39The way forward											42References												4501Photo: Neil Palmer/CIATKEY MESSAGES

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

KEY MESSAGE 1
Countries need to deliver on their existing commitments to restore 1 billion hectares ofdegraded land and make similar commitments for marine and coastal areas.
The fulfilment of these commitments is not simply something that is ‘nice to have’. Restoration is essential forkeeping global temperature rise below 2°C, ensuring food security for a growing population and slowing the rate ofspecies extinctions. Humanity is not outside of nature; it is part of it. We need to recreate a balanced relationshipwith the ecosystems that sustain us.

KEY MESSAGE 2
Unfortunately, we are still going in the wrong direction.
The world’s ecosystems – from oceans to forests to farmlands – are being degraded, in many cases at anaccelerating rate. People living in poverty, women, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups bear thebrunt of this damage, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened existing inequalities. While the causes ofdegradation are various and complex, one thing is clear: the massive economic growth of recent decades hascome at the cost of ecological health.

KEY MESSAGE 3
Ecosystem restoration is needed on a large scale in order to achieve the sustainable
development agenda.
The conservation of healthy ecosystems – while vitally important – is now not enough. We are using the equivalentof 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life, and ecosystems cannot keep up with our demands. Simply put, weneed more nature. The good news is that nature has an extraordinary capacity for renewal. While some ecosystems
are approaching a tipping point from which they cannot recover, many others can flourish again if we stop thedamage and restore their health, biodiversity and productivity.

KEY MESSAGE 4
Ecosystem restoration delivers multiple benefits.
It is one of the most important ways of delivering nature-based solutions for societal challenges.
•
•

•

•
•

Half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature, and every dollar invested in restoration creates up to USD 30 dollars
in economic benefits.
Restoring productive ecosystems is essential to supporting food security. Restoration through agroforestry alone
has the potential to increase food security for 1.3 billion people. Restoring the populations of marine fish to deliver a
maximum sustainable yield could increase fisheries production by 16.5 million tonnes, an annual value of
USD 32 billion.
Actions that prevent, halt and reverse degradation are needed if we are to keep global temperatures below 2°C. Suchactions can deliver one-third of the mitigation that is needed by 2030. This could involve action to better manage
some 2.5 billion hectares of forest, crop and grazing land (through restoration and avoiding degradation) andrestoration of natural cover over 230 million hectares.
Large-scale investments in dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and water management will make a vital
contribution to building resilience to climate change, generating benefits around four times the original investment.
With careful planning, restoring 15 per cent of converted lands while stopping further conversion of natural
ecosystems could avoid 60 per cent of expected species extinctions.
03

KEY MESSAGE 5
Achieving successful ecosystem restoration at scale will require deep changes, including:
•
•
•

•
•

Adopting inclusive wealth as a more accurate measure of economic progress. This will rest on the widespread
introduction of natural capital accounting.
Creating an enabling environment for private sector investment, including through public-private partnerships.
Increasing the amount of finance for restoration, including through the elimination of perverse subsidies thatincentivize further degradation and fuel climate change, and through initiatives to raise awareness of the risks
posed by ecosystem degradation.
Taking action on food waste, making more efficient use of agricultural land, and encouraging a shift to a more
plant-based diet.
Expanding awareness of the importance of healthy ecosystems throughout our educational systems.

KEY MESSAGE 6
Everyone has a role to play in ecosystem restoration.
The restoration of ecosystems at scale is no small task, and it will take a concerted effort to truly restore theplanet. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to catalyse a global movement among local communities,
activists, women, youth, indigenous groups, private companies, financial investors, researchers and governments at
all levels.
The beauty of restoration is that it conveys a message of action and hope, and it can happen at any scale – whethera backyard plot, a city park, a river valley, a national forest or a globally threatened ecosystem. This means thateveryone can get involved.

KEY MESSAGE 7
Achieving the aims of the UN Decade will require action by many. We call on:
•

•
•
•
•
•

04

Governments to ensure that their COVID-19 recovery plans incorporate significant allocations for ecosystem
restoration as a central component to delivering a green, sustainable and fair recovery. Currently, only about
18 per cent of recovery stimulus plans can be characterized as ‘green’.
Parties to deliver on existing commitments under the Rio Conventions and the Bonn Challenge to restore
1 billion hectares of land.
Donors and institutions working on coastal and marine restoration to develop and deliver on ambitious
restoration goals equivalent at least to the Bonn Challenge.
Public and private financial institutions and regulatory bodies to develop and strengthen instruments andmechanisms to ensure that finance flows support – and do not compromise – restoration efforts.
Indigenous peoples and local communities across the world to build on their knowledge, experience andcapacity for action to help achieve restoration goals.
Youth organizations to play an active leadership role in ecosystem restoration locally, nationally and globallyand to actively participate in the governance and implementation of the UN Decade.

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Photo: Neil Palmer /CIAT

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

05

Humanity now faces a choice: we can continue down a path where our demands on Nature far exceed its
capacity to meet them on a sustainable basis; or we can take a different path, one where our engagementswith Nature are not only sustainable but also enhance our collective well-being and that of our descendants.
– The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review
We can no longer deny that we are a part of our environment, which we are degrading at an alarming rate. In
order to embark on a more sustainable pathway, we need both to conserve and restore ecosystems. This reportmakes the case for why restoration, in particular, is so important and outlines how the UN Decade can catalyse a
movement to restore the world’s ecosystems.
Healthy, stable and biodiverse ecosystems are the foundation of our health and well-being, as well as that of our
fellow species. They help to regulate our climate and control extreme events, pests and diseases, as well as to provide
us with water, food, raw materials and spaces for recreation. They absorb our wastes, sustain economic sectors andthe livelihoods of millions of people, and they nurture our health, culture and spiritual fulfilment (IPBES 2019).
However, we have been overexploiting and degrading the world’s ecosystems and wild species, causing the erosionof the very services we depend on (UNEP 2021). Driving this degradation are the ways we produce food (Benton etal. 2021) and alter our landscapes and oceans, along with climate change, pollution and invasive species (IPBES
2019). The global economy has seen incredible growth over recent decades – growth that has been fuelled by
the erosion of the world’s natural assets. Thus, our massive gains in income and poverty reduction come at theexpense of a significant deterioration of the health of the biosphere. We are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths
to maintain our current lifestyle (Global Footprint Network 2021) and are putting the future of our economies at
extreme risk (Dasgupta 2021).
This report represents a synthesis of recent research. All selected ecosystems – farmlands; forests; freshwater;
grasslands, shrublands and savannahs; mountains; oceans and coasts; peatlands; and urban areas – are being
degraded, often at an accelerating rate. We are fast approaching a tipping point for the climate (IPCC 2018) and areclose to overshooting some of our other ‘planetary boundaries’. The demands humanity places on the biosphere –our ecological footprint – are simply too much (Dasgupta 2021). Because ecosystem degradation does not affecteveryone equally, its worst impacts mainly affect people living in poverty, women and girls, members of indigenous
and traditional communities, older persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic, racial or other minorities and displaced
persons (Stoeckl et al. 2013; OHCHR 2018; UN HLCP 2021). These are the same groups of people who are suffering
the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is exacerbating pre-existing inequalities (UNEP and FAO 2020).
Chapter 2 provides a snapshot of the current state of the world’s ecosystems.
The need to restore damaged ecosystems has never been greater. Degradation is undermining hard-won
development gains and threatening the well-being of today‘s youth and future generations, while making national
commitments increasingly more difficult and costly to reach. None of the agreed global goals for the protectionof life on Earth and for halting the degradation of land and oceans have been fully met (UNEP 2021), and only 6of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets have been partially achieved (CBD 2020a). We need to re-create a balanced
relationship with nature, not only by conserving ecosystems that are still healthy, but also by urgently andsustainably restoring degraded ones. Ecosystem restoration alone cannot solve the crises we face, but it is key
to averting the worst of them. Chapter 3 details the myriad ways that nature-based solutions like restoration canbenefit the climate, food systems, health and the economy.
Much has been done already, and we can build on the lessons learned from existing restoration approaches andinitiatives. Commitments by 115 governments to restore a total of nearly 1 billion hectares of land as a contribution
to achieving the objectives of the CBD, UNCCD, UNFCCC and the Bonn Challenge (Sewell et al. 2020) are a goodstart. However, achieving restoration goals will require a fundamental shift in the way we value ecosystems, theirbiodiversity and the vital services we depend on (Dasgupta 2021). Chapter 4 provides an overview of different
approaches to restoration, guiding principles and helpful technical and scientific innovations, as well as the broader
conditions needed to address the drivers of degradation and enable the transition to a more sustainable way of life.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of all kinds of
ecosystems, contributing to reductions in global poverty and ensuring that no one is left behind. Running from 2021
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

until 2030, the UN Decade launches a global movement to restore ecosystems worldwide. This will help to achieve
multiple global goals, including the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the CBD, the Paris Agreement
under the UNFCCC, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under 2030 Agenda and the Land Degradation
Neutrality targets under the UNCCD. There are also clear complementarities with the efforts being developed inboth the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) and the UN Decade of Family
Farming (2019–2028). The UN Food Systems Summit 2021 provides an opportunity to promote scaled up action on
restoring farmlands and other food-producing systems. Chapter 5 presents the overall strategy for the UN Decadeand the way forward.
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for generations. Yet this crisis has also demonstrated thepower of international cooperation and provided us with an opportunity to steer away from our current destructive
trajectory (UNEP 2021). To put countries on a path that is green, sustainable and fair, national governments
must include ecosystem restoration in their pandemic recovery plans. This Decade can serve as a launchpad toaccelerate the transformative changes we need to combat the climate crisis, prevent mass extinctions and build
social and economic resilience.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)

1

WHAT IS ECOSYSTEMRESTORATION?
Ecosystem restoration is the process of halting andreversing degradation, resulting in improved ecosystemservices and recovered biodiversity. Ecosystem
restoration encompasses a wide continuum of practices,
depending on local conditions and societal choice.
Depending on objectives, restored ecosystems canfollow different trajectories:•

Photo: Georgina Smith/CIAT••

from degraded natural to more intact natural
ecosystems (often by assisting natural regeneration)from degraded, modified ecosystems to morefunctional modified ecosystems (e.g. restoration ofurban areas and farmlands)
from modified ecosystems towards more natural
ecosystems, providing that the rights and needsof people who depend on that ecosystem are notcompromised.

07

PAKISTAN HOSTS WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2021:
CELEBRATING ECOSYSTEM RESTORATIONAs the leader of one of the world’s most ambitious forest landscape restoration efforts, Pakistan is hosting
World Environment Day 2021, celebrating the year’s theme of ecosystem restoration and the launch of the
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Over the next five years, the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme will aim to expand and restore Pakistan’s
mangroves and forests, while also generating jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, boosting conservation andcurbing the impacts of climate change. In alignment with international and national commitments, the campaign
focuses on forest restoration in both rural and urban areas, including growing trees in schoolyards, colleges, publicparks and green belts.

Photo: ShutterstockThis flagship programme will contribute to the country’s goals to conserve and restore its fragile ecosystems
and safeguard the livelihoods of communities. There are also efforts to restore wetlands, such as the Miani Hor
Lagoon, home to the largest mangrove forests along the Balochistan coast. In 2020, government-led efforts
brought together non-governmental organizations and local fishermen and women to restore land using over
250,000 nursery plants and 461,000 cuttings. The programme is beginning with a goal of 404 hectares, expanding
to 1,214 hectares over the coming years. The government is also developing a novel debt-for-nature scheme toease its debt burden and accelerate the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami.

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Photo: www.grida.no/resources/11045

CHAPTER 2

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE
WORLD’S ECOSYSTEMS

09

We are degrading our ecosystems in serious ways. From farmlands to forests, from mountains to oceans, our diverse
ecosystems – both natural and modified – are being damaged faster than they can recover. This means they arelosing their integrity, their biodiversity and their ability to provide essential services.
In all ecosystems, biodiversity loss and degradation are caused by direct drivers (land- or sea-use change, direct
exploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive species), which are underpinned by demographic and economic
indirect drivers that interact in complex ways. While the specific causes of degradation vary across ecosystems, ingeneral overfishing is having the greatest impact on oceans, and terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are mostaffected by land-use change, which is driven mainly by agriculture, forestry and urbanization (IPBES 2019).
The UN Decade focuses on eight broad categories of ecosystems, based upon the International Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0 (IUCN 2020). These ecosystems overlap somewhat; forexample, some grasslands or forests are also peatlands, and all three of these ecosystems can occur in mountains.
This chapter provides a snapshot of each ecosystem, including the benefits that humans and other species gain fromit and how it is being degraded. The following figure describes the coverage and state of degradation of each of theselected ecosystems.

2.1 Farmlands
Farmlands sustain human life. They provide us with food, fibre and other essential products and also supply
biodiversity habitat, economic opportunities and spiritual and cultural benefits (UNCCD 2017). At least two billion
people depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods, particularly poor and rural populations (Searchinger et al.
2019; Abraham and Pingali 2020), and over 90 per cent of our calories and protein originate on land (FAOSTAT 2021)
Farmland degradation is reducing crop and livestock yields. While farmland degradation typically involves harm
to soils (FAO and ITPS 2015), it can also result from the loss of wild species that provide pest control and croppollination (Dainese et al. 2019). Roughly 80 per cent of global arable land is impacted by at least one form of
degradation, such as aridity, vegetation decline, soil salinization and loss of soil carbon. Soil erosion alone affects
roughly one-fifth of farmlands worldwide and is estimated to have increased by 2.5 per cent between 2001 and 2012,
primarily due to deforestation and cropland expansion (Prăvălie et al. 2021). Estimates project that land degradation
could reduce global food productivity by 12 per cent, causing food prices to soar by up to 30 per cent by 2040 (Noelet al. 2015; Kopittke et al. 2019). Approximately 12 million hectares of severely eroded croplands in the European
Union contribute to an annual loss in agricultural productivity of EUR 1.25 billion (Panagos et al. 2018). In the USA it
is estimated that the decline in soil fertility in maize fields costs farmers over half a billion dollars per year in extra
fertilizer (Jang et al. 2020). In China, where only 14 per cent of the land area is suitable for crop production, over
50 per cent of cultivated land has experienced degradation (Deng 2016).

In Kenya, land degradation is having a significant impact
on crop productivity, and hence on local livelihoods and theoverall economy. Soil nutrient mining – when crop producers
remove more nutrients from the soils than they apply – isleading to lower yields for wheat, maize and rice crops,
costing the country an estimated USD 270 million each year.
This, in combination with wind and water erosion, rangeland
degradation, deforestation and desertification, is threatening
not only rural livelihoods but also water supplies and wildlife
habitat (Mulinge et al. 2015).
10Photo: Reuters

Examples from around the world

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Ecosystems worldwide are under pressure

FARMLANDSFORESTSFRESHWATER

Croplands and pastures(modified grasslands onwhich domestic animals
are grazed)

Tropical, subtropical,
temperate, boreal andpolar forests, plantations,low-density woodlands
and agroforests

Rivers, lakes, wetlands
and other inland waters

4.8

billion ha

a

4.06

<0.01%

Croplands and pastures
cover ~12% and 26% of
the world’s ice-free landb

billion ha~31% of global land areadof the earth’s surfacef

20%

~420

35%

of croplands show
stressed or declining
productivityc

million haof forest have been
converted to other land
uses since 1990e

GRASSLANDS, SHRUBLANDS & SAVANNAHS
Shrublands, shrubby
woodlands, heathlands,
savannahs, steppes andgrasslands
Grasslands andsavannahs cover

26-40%of the earth’s land
surfacei~19%

average decline in area of
natural inland wetlands
since 1970g, with 87%
total loss since 1700hof grasslands and
27% per cent ofrangelands show
stressed or declining
productivityj

MOUNTAINSOCEANS & COASTSPEATLANDSURBAN AREAS

Found on all of the world’s
continents, in biomes fromhot deserts to tropicalforests to polar ice caps

Tropical, temperate andpolar marine ecosystems
from shallow coastal to
deep sea

Wetland habitats withorganic peaty soils (e.g.
marshes, swamps, fens
and bogs)

Cities, towns and villages.
Habitats in green spaces
and waterways

Oceans occupy

~400

27%

of global land areak

5 daysper decade = average
decline in duration ofmountain snow cover,
especially at lower
elevationl

36billion ham~66%
of ocean ecosystems
are damaged, degradedor modifiedn. ~1/3 ofcommercial marine fish
populations are fishedunsustainablyo

million ha

across 169 countriesp

Degradation has
affected nearly

65 million haof peatlandsq, especiallyin Europe, Central andSoutheast Asia, East Africa,
southernmost America andthe Amazonr

2%of global land areas>50%

Since 2000, the numberof city inhabitants without
access to safely managed
drinking water has
increased by more than
50 per cent ta
FAO 2016a, b Foley et al. 2011, c UNCCD 2017, d FAO and UNEP 2020, e FAO and UNEP 2020, f Lehner and Döll 2004, g Darrah et al. 2019, h Reid et al. 2020, i Dudley etal. 2020, j UNCCD 2017, k Romeo et al. 2020, l IPCC 2019, m NOAA 2020a, n IPBES 2019, o FAO 2016b, p Joosten 2009; Kirpotin et al. 2021, q Bonn et al. 2016,r
FAO 2020a, s UN Habitat 2020, t UN-Water, 2021

11

2.2 Forests
Forests regulate the climate (FAO and UNEP 2020), absorb carbon from the atmosphere (−15.6 ± 49 gigatonnes of
CO2 equivalent [GtCO2e] gross annually, between 2001 and 2019) (Harris et al. 2021), and provide habitat for 80 per
cent, 75 per cent and 68 per cent of all amphibian, bird and mammal species, respectively (Vié, Hilton-Taylor andStuart 2009). They contribute to precipitation, regulate streamflow and foster groundwater recharge (FAO 2019),
providing drinking water to one-third of the world’s largest cities (HLPE 2017). Food, shelter, energy, medicines andaround 86 million associated jobs come from forest products (FAO 2018; FAO 2014).
Although deforestation has slowed in recent years, the world lost around 10 million hectares of forests per year
between 2015 and 2020 (FAO and UNEP 2020). If these rates continue unabated, the global canopy could shrink
by 223 million hectares by 2050 (Bastin et al. 2019). Each year, an average of 122 million hectares of forests areaffected by fires, pests, diseases, invasive species, drought and adverse weather events (IUFRO 2018). Degradation
could affect up to 1.75 billion people who live in or near forests, including indigenous and local communities,
smallholders and people who work in formal or informal forest-based enterprises. Degradation increases the risk offlooding (HLPE 2017) and, along with fragmentation of ecosystems, increases human-wildlife conflicts (Gibb et al.
2020). It has been linked to outbreaks of vector-borne diseases like malaria (Morand and Lajaunie 2021) and animalborne diseases, such as COVID-19 (UNEP and ILRI 2020) and Ebola (Olivero 2017). Finally, the consequences for the
climate are staggering: between 2001 and 2019, deforestation, logging and other disturbances resulted in emissionsof 8.1 ±2.5 GtCO2e annually (Harris et al. 2021).

2.3 Freshwater
Freshwater bodies are home to around one-third of vertebrate species and 10 per cent of all described species on
Earth (CBD 2020b), with many more in the world’s wetlands. Freshwater ecosystems provide food through inland
fisheries (Funge-Smith and Bennet 2019), water for drinking, agriculture and industry, and transportation of goods.
They regulate water quality and regional climate and provide flood protection. Forests and water are interlinked,
with an estimated 75 per cent of the world’s accessible freshwater coming from forested watersheds (FAO 2019).
Approximately 1.4 billion livelihoods worldwide are directly reliant on water, including jobs related to the food andbeverage, energy and water industries (UN 2018).
The integrity of freshwater ecosystems – and their capacity to provide ecosystem services – is increasingly under
threat. Worldwide water use has increased by nearly 600 per cent over the past 100 years (Wada et al. 2016), and by
2050 the global demand for water is expected to increase by 20–33 per cent from 2010 levels (Burek et al. 2016). Useof freshwater for power generation and irrigation provides economic benefits, but it can also cause environmental
and socioeconomic impacts downstream (Snoussi et al. 2007). Agriculture accounts for 92 per cent of the global
freshwater footprint, and 29 per cent of the water in agriculture is directly or indirectly used for animal production(Hoekstra and Mekonnen 2012). Since 1900, 64–71 per cent of wetlands have been lost. While the rate of wetland
loss in Europe has slowed, and in North America has remained low since the 1980s, in Asia it has remained high due
to large-scale and rapid conversion of coastal and inland natural wetlands (Davidson 2014). Freshwater ecosystemdegradation and over-abstraction are contributing to water scarcity; half a billion people worldwide face severe water
scarcity year round (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2016).

Examples from around the world
Agriculture consumes a large amount of freshwater. The most dramatic example of this is the Aral Sea inCentral Asia. Once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world, with a surface area of 68,000 km2, it is
now only one-tenth of its original size (Loodin 2020). Construction of large-scale irrigation infrastructurein the 1960s diverted its source rivers towards cotton and other crops, leaving the remaining water anddried-out land polluted and salty (Earth Observatory, n.d.). Local populations continue to suffer from foodinsecurity, job losses and health problems (Wæhler and Dietrichs 2017; Dasgupta 2021; Loodin 2020).
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

2.4 Grasslands, shrublands
and savannahs
Most grasslands, shrublands and savannahs are foundin drylands, although some are cool and wet. Occurringin every continent but most extensively in Africa andAsia (Prăvălie 2016), drylands also include hyper-arid
deserts (UNCCD 2017). Drylands generally have a low
productivity, yet they support the livelihoods of over
1.75 billion people (Safriel et al. 2005), including manypoor populations (Mortimore 2009). In East Africa
alone, over 250 million people depend on drylands fortheir livelihoods (De Leeuw et al. 2014). Collectively
they store substantial soil organic carbon, helping to
mitigate climate change (Mbaabu et al. 2020). They
also provide water storage and regulation, woodfuel,timber and charcoal, as well as forage for livestock.
Drylands host unique wildlife and are home to many
global biodiversity hotspots (FAO and UNEP 2020).
Yet these ecosystems are sensitive to over-exploitation.
Agriculture has cleared or transformed an estimated
70 per cent of grasslands and 50 per cent of savannahs
worldwide (Foley 2011). In Europe almost half ofgrasslands had a ‘bad’ conservation status, withmanaged grasslands (68 per cent) in particular ina bad state (European Environment Agency 2020).
Degradation of grasslands and savannahs threatensthe culture and livelihoods of indigenous and ethnic
minority communities (Dudley et al. 2020).

2.5 Mountains
Mountain ecosystems host roughly half of the world’s
biodiversity hotspots (UN 2020b). They directly support
the livelihoods of people living in mountain regions andprovide critical ecosystem services to inhabitants oflower lands, including freshwater, timber and recreation

Examples from aroundthe world
During the 20th century, conversion of an
estimated 29 million hectares of former
grasslands in western Canada to agricultural
production, including the practice of leaving thetilled earth exposed to wind every other year, led
to an estimated 25 per cent loss of soil organiccarbon. Severe wind erosion events led tosignificant areas of the region being abandonedin the 1930s (IPBES 2018).

Examples from aroundthe world
The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is the source often of Asia’s largest river systems and the main
source of freshwater in South Asia (Alfthan etal. 2018). Ecosystem services from the HKH
sustain an estimated 240 million people in theregion and benefit some 1.7 billion people indownstream river basins (Xu et al. 2019). Global
warming is a key driver of change in HKH. Glacier
volumes are projected to decline by up to 90 per
cent throughout the 21st century. Degradation of
permafrost is expected to destabilize mountainslopes, alter hydrology and threaten infrastructure.
HKH is also facing environmental degradation fromoverexploitation of natural resources, land use andland cover change (Bolch et al. 2019).

opportunities (CBD 2007). Known as the ‘water towers of the world’, mountain ecosystems fulfil the freshwater needsof half the global population (CBD 2007; UNEP, Grid-Arendal, GMBA 2020). Mount Kenya, for example, provides waterto over 7 million people, while the Andes provide water to over 95 million. Mountains are also a source of food: of the
20 plant species that supply 80 per cent of the world’s food, six – maize, potatoes, barley, sorghum, tomatoes andapples – originated from and have been diversified in mountains (UN 2020b).
Degradation of mountain ecosystems is endangering crop production, animal husbandry (Romeo et al. 2020) andoverall food security. Globally, 311 million people, approximately half of the mountain population in developing
countries, live in areas exposed to progressive land degradation. Of these, 178 million are considered vulnerable
to food insecurity (FAO and UNCCD 2019). Over the past 200 years, floods due to glacial lake outbursts alone havecaused at least at least 400 deaths in Europe, 5,700 in South America and 6,300 in Asia, and the number of new
glacial lakes is increasing with climate change. Changes in snow and glaciers affect run-off in some river basins, inturn impacting local water resources and agriculture (Hock et al. 2019).
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2.6 Oceans and coasts
The ocean sustains all life on Earth. It provides 90 per cent of the world’s life-supporting space (UNESCO 2017)
and 50–80 per cent of the oxygen in the atmosphere (NOAA 2020b). It regulates our weather and climate, provides
food and medicine and holds sacred and intrinsic value for many indigenous and local communities. International
shipping is essential to the global economy, accounting for 80 per cent of global trade (UNCTAD 2018). Salt marshes,coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves protect coastlines by slowing floodwater release and reducing wave
heights (UNEP 2016; Ferrario et al. 2014; Shepard et al. 2011; Das and Vincent 2009). Mangrove ecosystem services
are estimated to be worth USD 33–57 thousand per hectare per year (UNEP 2014).
Yet a third of our oceans’ commercial fish stocks are now overfished (FAO 2016b; FAO 2020b). This threatens the
livelihoods of fishers, of which there are 60 million globally (FAO 2020b). With 1.15–2.41 million tonnes of plastic
entering the ocean each year (IPBES 2019), plastic pollution is estimated to reduce marine ecosystem services by
1–5 per cent, equating to annual losses of USD 500–2,500 billion (Beaumont et al. 2019). Microplastics, and their
toxic chemicals, are present in seafood and drinking water (UNEP 2019a). Over the last 50 years, the open ocean has
lost 77 billion metric tonnes of oxygen (Schmidtko et al. 2017), expanding ‘dead zones’ by 4.5 million km2 – similar insize to the European Union (Stramma et al. 2010).
Rising water temperatures and acidification (caused by rising CO2 levels) are affecting the productivity and the
distribution of marine fish stocks (FAO 2020b). If ocean acidification continues unabated, it will cause a global lossof USD 1 trillion per year by 2100 (CBD 2014). Unless we make drastic cuts to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, allcoral reefs worldwide are expected to disappear due to bleaching and acidification by the end of this century (UNEP2017). Sea level rise is predicted to cause a 46–59 per cent loss of global coastal wetlands by 2100 (Spencer et al.
2016). Yet ocean temperatures continue to increase (Cheng et al. 2019).
Forty percent of us live within 100 km (60 miles) of the coast (UN 2017), making coastlines some of the mostdensely populated areas on Earth. Coastal development and conversion to aquaculture have led to the loss of 20 per
cent of the world’s mangroves, along with their protective services (Friess et al. 2019; UNEP 2014). Almost 30 per
cent of all seagrass has been lost since the late 19th century (UNEP 2020a). Dredging for port construction covers
reefs with sediment, causing the death of corals (Cunning et al. 2019).

Photo: Shutterstock

Examples from aroundthe world

14

In Australia, the Great Barrier Reef has lost halfof its corals since 1995 due to bleaching events(Dietzel et al. 2020). This poses a threat to the
64,000 jobs and the AUD 6.4 billion the reefbrings to the Australian economy – mostly fromtourism but also from fishing, recreational andscientific activities (O’Mahoney et al. 2017).

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Examples from aroundthe world

Photo: ShutterstockAround 10 per cent of European lands arepeatlands, but in many countries, more thanhalf are degraded by drainage. This drainage
has allowed the lands to be used, mainly for
agriculture, but also for forestry or even peat
extraction. Across the European Union, thesedegraded peatlands emit greenhouse gases ofaround 0.2GtCO2e per year, or around
5 per cent of EU emissions from all sectors.
They also release 1–5 Mt per year of nitrate,
which pollutes freshwaters, with impacts on
drinking water and biodiversity (Tanneberger
et al. 2020).

2.7 Peatlands
Peatlands store nearly 30 per cent of global soil carbon (Scharlemann et al. 2014) despite covering only 3 per cent of
the world’s land area (Joosten 2009). They purify and supply water, offer a natural haven for culture and recreation,and provide biomass, food and other livelihoods to millions of people (Crump 2017). In Peru, for example, peatland
swamp forests provide habitat for fish, wild animals and more than 50 plants, including palm fruit (Mauritia flexuosa),
which holds sacred cultural value for the indigenous Achuar people (López Gonzales et al. 2020), and which
accounts for 80 per cent of the income of many rural households during winter (Olsson et al. 2019).
Although more than 80 per cent of the global peatland area is still largely untouched, with vast and relatively intact
peatlands remaining in Russia, the central Congo basin and Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, peat volumes
are decreasing globally by approximately 0.2 per cent per year (Joosten 2009). Many European countries havedrained the majority of their peatlands, including Germany (98 per cent), The Netherlands (95 per cent), Denmark(93 per cent), and Ireland (82 per cent) (Tanneberger et al. 2017). Drainage, which affects nearly 15 per cent of all
peatlands (Crump 2017), leads to subsidence (sinking), land loss, vulnerability to toxic haze-producing fires and,in coastal peatlands, salinization (Crump 2017; FAO 2020a). It also contributes to peatland degradation, which
accounts for 3–4 per cent of all global GHG emissions each year (Leifeld and Menichetti 2018; Olivier and Peters
2019; IPCC 2014). In the tropics, drainage is mainly associated with commodity plantations, such as oil palm
cultivation (IPBES 2018), as well as acacia (Evans et al. 2019). Restoring peatlands could avoid GHG emissions
equivalent to 12–41 per cent of the remaining GHG budget for keeping global warming below 2°C (Leifeld et al. 2019).
15

2.8 Urban areas
Urbanization is a key driving force in the global economy and a strong indicator of economic development (Zhang
2016). Urban areas generate roughly 80 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (UN Habitat 2020), facilitate
trade and commerce, and are incubators of innovation (Zhang 2016; UN Habitat 2020). Cities can play a key role inincreasing standards of living and decreasing poverty and, if well-managed, provide good homes, opportunities forsocial interaction, clean air and water, food and climate regulation. ‘Green infrastructure’ within and around cities,
from green roofs to green belts, can help ensure that these services are sustainable. Street trees, for example,
are estimated to reduce summer maximum air temperatures by 0.5–2.0°C, benefiting at least 68.3 million people(MacDonald et al. 2016). In addition to climate regulation, green and blue infrastructure contributes to water
regulation and pollution reduction, as well as enhancing human well-being (Elmqvist et al. 2015). Cities can also
harbour significant biodiversity in urban parks, gardens and restored landscapes such as industrial parks, railway
tracks and residential areas (CBD 2021).
However, ineffective urban planning and management have contributed to socioeconomic inequality anddeteriorating environmental quality. Currently, 1.6 billion people live in inadequate, crowded and unsafe housing (UNHabitat 2020). Although access to water and sanitation is usually better in urban areas than rural ones, the numberof city inhabitants without access to safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 50 per cent since2000 (UN Water 2021). Urban areas also cause high levels of waste and emissions. According to estimates, cities
generate 70 per cent of global carbon emissions and consume two-thirds of the world’s energy (UN Habitat 2020).
Air pollution is a major health risk: more than 80 per cent of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are
exposed to air quality levels exceeding World Health Organization guidelines (UN 2016).

Summary
Since the 1950s humanity has made enormous advances in health, poverty reduction and economic
development. However, those gains have come at a massive ecological cost (Dasgupta 2021). Between
1992 and 2014, we doubled the per capita value of produced capital (roads, machines, buildings, factories
and ports) and slightly increased the value of human capital (health and education), while the valueof stock of natural capital (specifically, minerals and fossil fuels, agricultural land, forests as sourcesof timber and fisheries) fell by a staggering 40 per cent (Managi and Kumar 2018). These facts areconnected. The increase in produced capital was achieved, in significant part, through the degradation ofnature. This is not sustainable.
Humans are a part of nature. Yet all ecosystems discussed in this report are suffering from degradation– in many cases at an accelerating rate. The complex interactions between ecosystems mean that
degradation of one ecosystem type can lead to the degradation of another. There is no guaranteethat ecosystems will continue to be able to provide many of the services we rely on, from food, waterand raw materials, to protection from disease and natural disasters, to clean air and a stable climate.
These losses are usually felt locally, but as ecosystems lose their ability to regulate the climate, theconsequences will reverberate around the globe.
Chapter 3 outlines how restoration can help ecosystems regain their capacity to provide these services.

16

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT

CHAPTER 3

WHY RESTORATION IS NECESSARY

17

Photo: Axel Fassio/CIFOR

We need to recreate a balanced relationship with the ecosystems that sustain us. Far from being something that is‘nice to have’, restoration is essential to mitigating climate change, ensuring food security for a growing populationand halting biodiversity loss. Cutting emissions through decarbonization of our energy systems will simply not
be enough to keep the average global temperature rise below 2°C. We also need nature-based solutions likerestoration (Griscom et al. 2019).
Poverty is partly a consequence of land degradation and, in certain circumstances, can exacerbate damage toecosystems. Gender inequality plays a significant role in land-degradation related poverty (UNCCD 2011). In
developing countries, agriculture is the most important source of income for women (ILO 2016), who bear the bruntof degraded soils, unpredictable rainfall and displacement. Although women are often stewards of the environment,
lack of secure land rights can increase the likelihood of degradation (Mor 2018), which can in turn expose womenand girls to a greater risk of gender-based violence (e.g., when they are forced to travel longer distances to collectfuelwood; Castañeda Camey 2020). Degradation also disproportionately affects indigenous and local communities
that depend directly on natural resources for their livelihoods (UNEP 2019b) and threatens the health of young
people and elders, women, poor people, indigenous peoples, people with chronic health conditions, and thosetargeted by racism (Solomon et al. 2016; Landrigan et al. 2017).
Restoring degraded ecosystems has tremendous potential to advance the achievement of all Sustainable
Development Goals (IRP 2019a; Ramsar 2018), often contributing to several goals at once. This chapter
demonstrates the value of ecosystem restoration for the global economy, food and water, health, climate mitigation
and adaptation, security and the diversity of species on our planet; it also discusses how to balance synergies
and trade-offs.
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Healthy, restored ecosystems provide many benefits

HEALTH & WELFARE

FOOD SECURITY

BIODIVERSITYECONOMYThe restoration of ecosystems can provide
benefits and services which
are essential to physical andmental health such as clean
air, climate regulation anddisease prevention

Restoration of farmlands
and the food-producing
services of natural
ecosystems can help
the world to achieve theSustainable Development
Goal of zero hunger by 2030

Restoration can reverse
biodiversity losses andincrease provision of
ecosystem services

The longer that ecosystems
are left to degrade, and themore degraded they become,the larger the costs to society
due to decreasing ecosystemservices and the higher costof the restoration itself

ExampleExampleExampleRestoring mangroves
could add

Restoring 15% of≈10 trillion

ExampleInvesting just

US$4
per resident in growing
trees could improvehealth of millions ofpeople by filtering andcooling aira

60 trillion
young, edible andcommercially valuable
fish and invertebrates tocoastal waters every yearb

converted land in the rightplaces could avoid

60%of expected species
extinctionsc

in global GDP
could be lost by 2050
if ecosystem services
continue to declined

ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION

CLIMATEADAPTATION

CLIMATE CHANGEMITIGATION

Ecosystem restoration
can play an important rolein people’s adaptation toclimate change

To avoid catastrophic
climate change, the worldmust limit global warming towell below 2°C

ExampleExampleRestoration of oyster reefs
in Mobile Bay, Alabama
USA reduced average wave
heights and energy at theshoreline byProtecting intact
ecosystems, halting andreversing degradation has
the potential tocontribute over

53-91%

1/3

with co-benefits ofincreased seafood
production, improved
fish stocks and better
opportunities for tourism
and recreationeahof the total climatechange mitigation
required by 2030f

WATER

SECURITY

Natural ecosystems offer
critical services to people
including the provisioningof clean water, sanitation,and irrigation. Fresh water
is essential to food security,
energy production and health

Restoring degradedecosystems reduces thepressure on resources,
helping to prevent
conflicts and migrationin the long term

ExampleGlobally

81%of cities could reduce
sediment or nutrient
pollution in the waterused by their populations
by coupling forest
protection and restoration
with improvements inagricultural practiceg

ExampleAfrica’s Great Green Wallaims to integrate thepromotion of peace andsecurity into larger
objective of restoring

100 million
hectaresof degraded land acrossthe Sahelh

Dasgupta 2021, b Worthington and Spalding 2018, c Strassburg et al. 2020, d Johnson et al. 2020, e Fodrie et al. 2017, f Griscom et al. 2019, g Abell et al. 2017,
Great Green Wall 2021

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3.1 The economy
Our economies and societies are embedded in nature. Beyond contributing to the production of many of the goods
and services that are produced and consumed in our economies, ecosystems also supply a wide range ofessential services.
Despite the fact that we rely on these services, we continue to undercut the ability of ecosystems to provide them.
The 2021 Dasgupta Review highlights this as a widespread failure of markets and institutions to integrate thevalue of ecosystems into decision-making. Because we have obtained many of their services ‘free of charge’, wehave used ecosystems unsustainably and failed to invest in them. The outcome is that the current economic andsocietal demand for ecosystem services far exceeds ecosystems’ ability to supply them. In short, we ‘need’ morenature than we have.
Recent economic development has substantially increased the material standard of living of many people in theworld. However, this economic development trajectory at the expense of lost biodiversity and ecosystem services
is unsustainable. This is particularly true for low-income countries, whose citizens rely more directly on ecosystems
and their contributions to the economy, livelihoods and human well-being.
Ecosystem restoration is essential for sustainable economic development. The Dasgupta Report identifies
investment in ecosystems to boost the supply of their services as essential for a transition to a sustainableeconomic development pathway. This requires building the enabling environment for channelling financial
investment into economic activities that enhance the stock of ecosystem assets (Dasgupta 2021). Examples thathighlight the potential positive economic returns of such investments include:•

Restoring coral reefs in Mesoamerica and Indonesia could deliver an additional USD 2.5–2.6 billion inecosystem service benefits per year (UNEP, ISU, ICRI and Trucost 2018).

•

Restoring mangroves to 40–100 per cent of their pre-1980s extent may increase commercial fisheries output by
USD 1.9–3.0 billion per year (Konar and Ding 2020).

•

Restoring populations of marine fish to deliver a maximum sustainable yield could increase fisheries
production by 16.5 million tonnes, an annual value of USD 32 billion (Ye et al. 2013).

•

Large-scale investments in dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and water management will make avital contribution to building resilience to climate change, generating benefits around four times the original
investment (Kapos et al. 2019).

The cost of inaction is greater than the cost of restoration. Half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature (WEF
2020), and around USD 10 trillion in global GDP could be lost by 2050 if ecosystem services continue to decline(Johnson et al. 2020). Every dollar invested in restoration creates up to 30 dollars in economic benefits (Ding et al.
2018). Therefore, we need to act quickly to restore ecosystems if we hope to avoid major economic consequences.
Ecosystem restoration creates livelihood opportunities. So far, only 18 per cent of COVID-19 recovery spending is
expected to enhance sustainability (O’Callaghan and Murdock 2021). Shifting towards investment in ecosystem
restoration can be a powerful means of job creation, supporting economic recovery at the same time as rebuilding
natural capital (OECD 2020). For instance:•

In the United States, investment in landscape-scale restoration creates at least twice as many jobs as similar
investment in the oil and gas sector (Calderón 2017).

•

New Zealand has dedicated NZD 1.1 billion in recovery funds towards 11,000 restoration jobs (Robertson 2020).

•

Ethiopia is aiming to double its forest cover by 2030 by planting 5 billion seedlings, thereby creating green jobs
(Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 2020).

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Examples from aroundthe world

Photo: Shutterstock

Costa Rica has doubled its forest cover since the1980s through restoration, while simultaneously
tripling its national income. It has reversed
deforestation by paying landowners for ecosystemservices such as carbon sequestration andwatershed protection, providing economic
incentives for landowners to restore and protect
their natural resources. Costa Rica is now a leader
in ecotourism; its tourism sector, which accounts
for 6 per cent of GDP, is growing by 6 per cent per
year (Pharo et al. 2019), and provides 7 per cent of
all jobs (OECD 2021).

3.2 Food security
Achieving SDG 2 (Zero hunger) by 2030 requires healthy and biodiverse production landscapes and healthy
populations of fish and other wild species that humans depend on for food.
On agricultural land, a variety of practices can contribute to ecosystem restoration, including agroecology, climatesmart and conservation farming practices, organic farming, sustainable land management and intensification,
integrated production systems, regenerative agriculture and bio-innovations (CPF 2021; FAO 2020c; HLPE
2019; Mbow et al. 2019). Agroforestry alone has the potential to increase food security for 1.3 billion people(Smith et al. 2019), and can reduce soil erosion by 50 per cent and increase soil carbon by 21 per cent, inorganic
nitrogen by 46 per cent and phosphorus by 11 per cent (Muchane et al. 2020). Innovative solutions, such as theenhancement of natural bioremediation processes to counter soil pollution, capitalize on the functions of soil andplant microorganisms. These natural processes can be enhanced by biostimulation (inputs to boost the actionof existing microbiomes) and bioaugmentation (addition of new microorganisms to degrade specific pollutants)(Goswami et al. 2018).
Restoration of mangroves, coastal and marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems can all help to achieve
food security targets. Aquatic system restoration measures include transforming management and production
processes that cause ecosystem damage (e.g. overfishing, habitat destruction from fishing gear, clearing
mangroves for aquaculture), as well as similar transformations in other industries (e.g. reducing the impact ofagricultural run-off on water quality and flow, or of coastal development on seagrasses and coral reefs) (FAO
2020c). According to the Mangrove Restoration Potential Map, restoring mangroves in 105 countries and territories
could add over 60 trillion young fish and invertebrates of commercially valuable species to coastal waters every
year (Worthington and Spalding 2018). The UN Food Systems Summit 2021 provides an opportunity to promoteaction in this area.
21

Examples from around the world
Despite improving food production, India’s ‘Green Revolution’ had unintended consequences, including
an increase in soil degradation, run-off and water consumption. To address the issue of unsustainableagriculture, Andhra Pradesh state is promoting the use of Zero-Budget Natural Farming. The approach isan alternative to high-cost chemical inputs-based agriculture, based on the latest scientific research inecology and rooted in Indian tradition.
The programme aims to reach all farmers in the state and achieve 100 per cent chemical-free agriculture
by 2024, using low or no-cost locally sourced inputs, including cow dung and cow urine. A recent study
found that the approach: boosted farmers’ incomes; increased carbon sequestration, biodiversity andsoil fertility; reduced pesticide use, water used for irrigation and electricity consumption; and improved
crop resilience by over 40 per cent (Galab et al. 2019; ZBNF, n.d.). The practice involves waaphasa (soilaeration), which was found to reduce water use in paddy farming, saving 1,400 to 3,500 cubic metres ofwater per acre per paddy cropping period and reducing farmers’ reliance on groundwater reserves for
irrigation and its associated electricity consumption (CSTEP 2020).

3.3 Clean water
Restoring wetlands and riverine areas can improve water quality by capturing pollutants and sediment from landdegradation. The Itaipu hydroelectric dam in Brazil now benefits from sediment control by restored areas upstream,
thanks to a programme that encourages farmers to create terraced fields and reforest river banks (Fraser 2018; Rycerz
et al. 2020). Sediment or nutrient pollution in water could be reduced by at least one-tenth across 81 per cent of theworld’s 4,000 largest cities by combining improved agriculture with forest protection and restoration (Abell et al. 2017).
In catchment areas, restoration can improve theflows and availability of water. Restoration offorests and other ecosystems has the potential
to save an estimated USD 890 million each year
in water treatment costs in the world’s largest
cities (McDonald and Shemie 2014). Improved
management within irrigation-fed croplands
could, as a single measure, reduce water use
by an amount equivalent to the annual needsof 1.4 billion people (Brauman et al. 2013).
In Madagascar, allowing tropical forests toregenerate by increasing fallow periods in shifting
cultivation could improve water availability for
irrigation, reducing overland flow and increasingwater recharge (van Meerveld et al. 2021). In
cities, restoring freshwater ecosystems can offer
several co-benefits. For instance, in Shanghai,
one wetland reduced the amount of suspended
sediments by 70 per cent, while also providing
cultural value (Li et al. 2009).

22

Examples from aroundthe world
South Africa has invested USD 1.15 billion in
restoration, including as part of the ‘Working for
Water’ initiative. Since 1995, three million hectares
have been cleared of invasive species (CHM 2018),
which affect water quality through an increased firerisk and subsequent soil erosion (Chamier et al. 2012).
In Brazil the Green-Blue Water Coalition is
implementing nature-based solutions to promotewater security in at-risk cities. The initiative works toconserve and restore forests across 21 watersheds
that supply almost 42 million people.

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

3.4 Health and well-being
Ecosystem health is interconnected with both physical and mental human health. We rely on ecosystems toregulate the climate, prevent disease and provide natural spaces in which to exercise and lower stress levels. They
are also a source of ingredients for both traditional medicine and biomedical and pharmaceutical development(WHO and CBD 2015). Nature is also central to the identity and spirituality of people worldwide, as promoted bypartners of the UN Decade such as the Faith for Earth Initiative and the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative.
The effects of heatwaves are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other weather-related event, withurban populations being particularly vulnerable. Yet research on the effects of trees on air quality in 245 of theworld’s largest cities shows that spending an additional USD 100 million on growing trees in urban areas could help
lower temperatures and reduce air pollution (TNC 2016). This, when combined with reductions in the sources of air
pollution, could improve the health of millions of people.
Air pollution is a major health risk, leading to an estimated 9 million premature deaths every year (UNEP 2019b).
Fires used to clear peatlands for farming and those fires starting in peatlands can smoulder for weeks. Over the
next few decades, air pollution from fires could cause 36,000 excess deaths each year on average in Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore. Comprehensive land management strategies, including peatland restoration, could cut
this mortality by about 66 per cent (Marlier et al. 2019).
Although the relationship between biodiversity and infectious disease is complex, the risk of infection rises as
land-use change and greater use of wildlife bring people and animals into closer contact (CBD 2020b; Everard etal. 2020). This creates opportunities for viruses to ‘jump species’ from other animals to people. Of all new andemerging human infectious diseases, roughly 75 per cent are zoonotic (Taylor et al. 2001; UNEP and ILRI 2020).
Deforestation has been linked to outbreaks of insect-borne diseases such as malaria (Morand and Lajaunie 2021)
and animal-borne diseases such as Ebola (Olivero 2017).
Psychological health can improve with exposure to nature. There is a growing body of evidence linking better sleep,
less stress and greater psychological well-being with contact with nature (Bratman et al. 2019). Exposure to natural
settings, both indoors and out, has been linked to enhanced mood (Browning et al., 2020).
Restoring green and blue spaces can therefore make a significant contribution to human well-being. The COVID-19
pandemic has illustrated the need for a holistic approach to the human and ecosystem health crisis, one that unites
experts from epidemiology and public health to ecology and social science. The World Health Organization’s ‘One
Health’ approach seeks to foster collaboration and communication between multiple sectors to achieve publichealth outcomes based on the recognition that human and environmental health are interconnected (WHO 2017).

3.5 Climate change mitigation
To avoid catastrophic climate change, 2030 should mark two milestones: the end of the UN Decade on Ecosystem
Restoration and the achievement of emissions reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global
warming to below 2°C. Delaying this will push us past a tipping point, beyond which solutions will be less effective– and some damage, irreversible (IPCC 2018). Improved land stewardship, including restoration, is one effective
strategy to limit global warming (Griscom et al. 2017; Bastin et al. 2019; Strassburg et al. 2020). However, restorationis only part of the solution. Successfully achieving net zero emissions will also rely on rapid emission reductions
across all sectors worldwide. Without this multi-pronged effort, the benefits gained through restoration efforts may
be only temporary.
Nature-based solutions can potentially contribute over one-third (11.3 GtCO2e per year) of the total climate change
mitigation needed by 2030 to keep global warming to just below 2°C. Within nature-based solutions, restoration isa key element. This could involve action to better manage some 2.5 billion hectares of forest, crop and grazing land
(restoration and avoided degradation), and restoring over 230 million hectares of natural cover (Griscom et al. 2019).

23

Soils represent around 25 per cent of the nature-based solutions required for climate change mitigation by 2030;
with half of this considered low cost at USD 10 per tonne of CO2 (Griscom et al. 2017; Bossio et al. 2020).
In agricultural ecosystems, restoration has the potential to significantly reduce the annual increase of CO2 in
the atmosphere and could offer one-fifth of the contribution to the climate change mitigation required by 2030
(Griscom et al. 2017; “4 per 1000” Initiative 2018). Coastal and inland wetlands are rich carbon sinks. Restoration
and avoiding the conversion of wetland ecosystems, including mangroves, saltmarshes, seagrasses and peatlands,
could offer 14 per cent of the nature-based solution to climate change mitigation (Griscom et al. 2017). Restoring
eligible mangroves could sequester 0.69 GtC in aboveground biomass and replace or avoid further losses ofapproximately 0.296 GtC in the top metre of soil (Worthington and Spalding 2018).

Photo: Shutterstock

Done in the right place and in the right way, nature-based climate mitigation solutions are cost-effective, low-techand scalable (Cook-Patton et al. 2020; Griscom et al. 2017; IRP 2019b; Strassburg et al. 2019; Strassburg et al.
2020) – and it is possible to safeguard global food production and biodiversity at the same time.

Examples from around the world
Countries are increasingly including nature-based solutions in their Nationally Determined Contributions(NDCs) to meet their targets for the Paris Climate Agreement. For example, Chile’s NDC includes targets
to sustainably manage and recover degraded functions of 200,000 hectares of native forests, capturing
0.9–2.1MtCO2e annually by 2030. The country has also committed to afforest/reforest 200,000 hectaresof land, of which 100,000 hectares will be permanent forest cover, capturing 3–3.4 MtCO2e annually by2030. It aims to promote this in priority conservation areas, using native species where possible. It also
aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation by 25 per cent by 2030, compared toits emissions average of 2001–2013. In addition, Chile has committed to evaluate peatland mitigation
capacity, develop a National Plan for the Restoration of Landscapes, incorporate 1,000,000 hectares
into the restoration process, and protect at least 30 coastal wetlands and at least 10 per cent ofunderrepresented marine ecoregions by 2030 (UNFCCC 2020).

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

3.6 Climate change adaptation
That we are altering the climate by continually emitting GHGs into the atmosphere is an inescapable reality (IPCC2014). But ecosystem restoration can play an important role in people’s adaptation to climate change by increasing
resilience and reducing vulnerability to extreme events. Restoration, conservation and sustainable management of
biodiversity and ecosystem services can be included alongside more conventional approaches as part of an overall
adaptation strategy (Kapos et al. 2019).
Restoration of coastal ecosystems can often help communities adapt to climate hazards such as sea level rise,storm surges and associated flooding. Growing evidence shows that healthy mangroves can be an effective
defence against the destructive impacts of tsunamis, and can reduce wave heights by 5–30 per cent (Spalding etal. 2014). Restoration of mangroves in the Philippines could protect more than 267,000 people from flooding, saving
USD 450 million/year in damage (Mountford et al. 2018; Losada et al. 2018). Restoring coastal wetlands in high-riskareas of the gulf coast of United States by 2030 could avoid an estimated USD 18.2 billion in storm damage (Gilman
and Ellison 2007). Restoration of oyster reefs in Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA reduced average wave heights at theshoreline by 53–91 per cent (Kroeger 2012). It also increased seafood production, improved fish stocks and led tobetter opportunities for tourism and recreation (Fodrie et al. 2017). Restoration of wetlands and oyster reefs on the
coast of Florida could prevent an estimated USD 50 billion in losses from flooding, with a projected benefit-to-cost
ratio of 3.5 (Reguero et al. 2018).
Ecosystem restoration inland can also reduce climate-related hazards, such as flooding, soil erosion and landslides
linked to extreme rainfall events. Forest restoration on slopes reduces erosion that results from intense rainfall.
For instance, in Singapore, restoring rivers, streams and lakes so that they blended more naturally with urban
environments reduced flood-prone areas in the city from 3,200 hectares to 32 hectares (Lim and Lu 2016).
Upland forest restoration helps to regulate water flow, stabilizing supplies in the face of both intense rainfall anddrought (Kapos et al. 2019). In the Philippines, Manila is experiencing changing rainfall patterns as a result ofclimate change and El Niño events. To stabilise water supplies, the public and private sector are working together
to reforest the watersheds that supply the city (McDonald and Shemie 2014). Ecosystem restoration in watershed
reserves in Mexico have similarly improved the natural flow regime and ecosystem function needed to sustain
water availability. As a result, 45 million people are projected to have increased water availability by 2050 (BarriosOrdoñez et al. 2015), reducing their vulnerability to climate change induced droughts. In Ecuador, restoration ofpáramo peatland by removing livestock, rewetting and restoring vegetation is contributing to better water supply forthe city of Quito (De Bievre et al. 2015)
Finally, as mentioned in Chapter 3.4, ecosystem restoration can help humans adapt to rising temperatures.
Restoration of forest canopy cover increases shading and evaporative cooling, which have adaptation benefits
in both rural and urban environments. Restoration of urban green spaces, including parks, can maintain air
temperatures 4°C below those of less vegetated areas (Gago et al. 2013).

3.7 Security
There is an urgent need to invest in ecosystem restoration as a key element of conflict resolution, peacebuilding,
improving access to resources and managing climate-related security risks (UNCCD 2018; UN 2020a; IRP 2019b;
IPBES 2018). Investing in ecosystem restoration builds trust in communities affected by conflict and can be a tool
for resolution and peacebuilding (Monga 2018; UN 2020a; IRP 2019b), reducing recruitment by terrorist groups
and alleviating pressure on people to migrate (UN 2020a; Barbut and Alexander 2016). Improving resource accessand creating jobs through restoration helps to alleviate poverty and provides opportunities for youth and returning
migrants, who may be vulnerable to exploitation by extremist organizations (Monga 2018; Wetlands International
2018). UN research found that 50 per cent of former combatants participating in reintegration programmes choose
agriculture as a livelihood, but access to land and resources could be a limiting factor (Unruh and Williams 2013;
UNEP and UNDP 2012).
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Ensuring that indigenous and local communities have stewardship of their land, and providing them with support, is
key to the success of restoration activities and to safeguarding the rights of community members. In Ecuador, theSocio Bosque programme paid indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities to care for their forests. Benefits ofthe programme include reduced deforestation rates and fewer invasions into their territories, as communities wereable to hire forest guards and clear trails for land demarcation (Perefán and Pabón 2019). Ecosystem restoration
is often driven most effectively by local leaders and communities (GEF 2020). Giving people rights to their land
provides incentives to reverse degradation and manage land and resources sustainably. Doing so improves yields,
lifts people out of poverty and creates conditions that reduce conflict around resource control (Suazo 2015; Barbut
and Alexander 2015; UNCCD, n.d.).
Between 50 and 700 million people are predicted to migrate because of land degradation and climate change
by 2050 (IPBES 2018). By reducing resource scarcity, increasing income generation and aiding mitigation andadaptation to climate change, restoration can address some of the main drivers of environmentally triggered humanmigration (IPBES 2018; UNCCD 2018).

Examples from around the world
The 8,000 kilometre-long Great Green Wall (GGW) is an African-led initiative to combat land degradation,desertification and drought across 11 countries in West Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region, where conflictis displacing communities. The initiative aims to promote peace and security as part of its larger
objective to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, while creating 10 million jobs (UNEP 2020b;
Great Green Wall 2021). The UN Decade, recognizing the importance of the GGW, adopted it as its first
Flagship Initiative, and UNEP, through the Global Environment Facility and other donors, operates many
restoration projects along the wall.
Before the initiative was launched in 2007, the region had already begun to realize the transformational
value of ecosystem restoration. Between 1987 and 2015, more than 200 million trees were planted, helping
restore over 5 million hectares of land. The re-establishment of nitrogen-fixing native Acacia species
through agroforestry helped increase grain production by half a million tonnes per year, boosting foodsecurity for more than 2.5 million people (IPBES 2018). And in areas of barren lands where native tree
stumps remained, bio-reclamation techniques such as half-moon planting pits, which collect rainwaterand increase soil fertility, encouraged these remnants to sprout naturally. This offers a cheaper andmore successful restoration alternative to manual tree planting (Bohissou 2019; Carey 2020). In one
study of areas in central Burkina Faso that had undergone restoration, more than 66 per cent of surveyed
households felt that the restored forest was a highly important source of food – specifically, wild meat,
fruits, nuts and leafy vegetables. Many of these foods fill important dietary gaps during months when grain
is in short supply and in times of intense drought. Women often sell products from trees and forests to buy
food during times of scarcity (Djenontin and Djoudi 2015).
With the launch of the Great Green Wall initiative, these efforts have received more global attention andcan benefit from regional collaboration and coordination (Great Green Wall 2021), thereby helping to foster
greater stability in the region.

3.8 Biodiversity
To bend the curve on biodiversity loss, we need to halt the loss of natural habitat, conserve what remains andrestore degraded ecosystems (IPBES 2018; Leclère et al. 2020). Loss and degradation of habitat are the main
identified threat to 85 per cent of all species described on the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2015). Scenarios show that, inprinciple, the worldwide trend of decline in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conversion could be reversed
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by the middle of this century, halting further biodiversity loss (Leclère et al. 2020). With careful spatial planning,
restoring just 15 per cent of converted lands while halting further conversion of natural ecosystems could avoid
60 per cent of expected species extinctions (Strassburg et al. 2020). This 15 per cent figure is informed by Aichi
Biodiversity Target 15 (CBD 2020a) and reinforced in SDG 15 (Life on land). Restoration focused on biodiversity willoften, but not always, also result in increased ecosystem services (Bullock et al. 2011).
Ecosystem restoration can enlarge the extent of habitats, increase species diversity and restore ecosystemcomplexity and function over time, as well as support the recovery of individual species populations. Increasing
ecosystem extent can increase the resilience of species populations that have suffered severe habitat loss. The
Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact is is a Brazilian initiative that aims to restore 1 million hectares of Atlantic Forestby 2020 and 15 million hectares by 2050. This could double the native cover to at least 30 per cent of the original
biome area and significantly reverse biodiversity loss (IPBES 2018).

Photo: Shutterstock

The restoration of biodiversity often involves restoring ecosystems as a whole, but can also focus on restoring(reintroducing) species to ecosystems from which they have been lost. Of course, these approaches can be
combined. Species may be chosen as ecosystem building blocks (e.g. tree species), engineers for re-wilding(e.g. beavers), to restore missing predators (e.g. wolves) or to improve species survival chances (e.g. scarcefritillary butterfly) (Soorae 2021).

Examples from around the world
The restoration of Chilika Lake, a large brackish water coastal lagoon on the east coast of India, resulted
in an increase in the population of endangered Irrawaddy dolphins from 89 to 158 between 2003 and2015. There was an increase in habitat use, improved breeding, dispersal and a decline in mortality rate ofthe dolphins (Pattnaik and Kumar 2018). An expansion of the seagrass meadows from 20 km² in 2000 to
80 km² was also recorded, helping the species’ recovery.
In China, restoration of aquatic vegetation in the polluted Hong Lake increased species diversity and led
to the return of the endangered oriental white stork after 11 years of absence. Water bird populations
soared to 20,000 breeding and 45,000 wintering birds. Meanwhile in Zhangdu Lake, opening a sluice gate
in 2005 to reconnect it with the Yangtze River restored seasonal migration of fish, and introduced about
5.26 million wild fish fry (Yu et al. 2009).
In the United States, the Glacial Ridge project aims to restore a largely wet, temperate grassland landscapethat had been drained and used for agriculture by reconnecting small fragments of tallgrass prairie.
Hydrology has been restored across 9,000 hectares, native plant seeds can be sourced from the prairie
remnants, and birds and butterflies have started to recolonize the area (Gerla et al. 2012).
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3.9 Synergies and trade-offs
In the last half century, we have been making a trade-off between two types of ecosystem services. By over-exploiting
the provisioning services – extracting food, water, fibre and raw materials – we are losing ecosystems’ capacity
to regulate our climate, purify our water, pollinate our crops and protect us from floods, with potentially disastrous
consequences (Dasgupta 2021).
Bringing ecosystems back to health through restoration can deliver multiple benefits for people and nature.
Restoration of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is linked to the delivery of all 17 SDGs, with many occurring
simultaneously (IRP 2019a; Ramsar 2018). Certain benefits rely on different systems working together. Often theseinteract in complex ways and therefore need close monitoring and adaptive management. Some benefits are enjoyeddirectly by the people living and working in and around the restored ecosystems, while other benefits can reach people
who are geographically distant, as well as future generations.
Successful restoration requires an integrated, holistic approach, and it will involve some trade-offs. While some,
but not all, trade-offs are negative, many are needed. Decisions on where to restore, and what approaches to use,
will influence the type of benefits that result, as well as their quantity and speed of delivery. It is possible to havemore of one service at the expense of one or more others. For example, cropland could be restored to produce more
food, converted for timber production, or restored for biodiversity conservation or water management. Integrated
spatial planning can help to improve trade-offs between economic, social and ecological objectives, ensuring thesustainability and efficiency of these systems and reducing their overall footprint.
The precise balance of the benefits delivered by restoration (be that at the individual site or at a number of locations)and the communities that benefit from these services will be determined by the decisions and actions taken. We needto carefully consider who will benefit, who may be affected and how. Therefore, we need to think holistically about
our actions when restoring individual degraded ecosystems or developing a strategy across a broader jurisdiction,
understanding the benefits that healthy ecosystems can deliver and the trade-offs implied by different choices.

Photo: Faizal Abdul Aziz/CIFOR

Chapter 4 explores the principles of good restoration and the enabling conditions for effective ecosystem restoration
throughout the UN Decade and beyond.

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Photo: Widen Collective

CHAPTER 4

RESTORING ECOSYSTEMS

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Photo: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOROne hundred and fifteen governments have committed to restoring a total of around 1 billion hectares on land, asa contribution to achieving the objectives of the CBD, UNCCD, UNFCCC or the Bonn Challenge on forest landscaperestoration (Sewell et al. 2020). Chapter 3 delivered evidence to back up the social, environmental and economic
case for restoration, including its critical role in meeting these international agreements. But because the roots ofdegradation lie within our economic and political systems, the solution will be neither quick nor easy. It will take aconcerted, coordinated effort to change course from our current trend of accelerating degradation towards a global
economy that sustains, rather than depletes, our ecosystems.
This chapter sets out the foundations for successful ecosystem restoration. While the challenge of wide-scale
restoration is daunting, there is substantial experience to learn from. Chapter 4.1 outlines insights from a growing
body of research that is establishing the principles of successful restoration, as well as technical and scientificinnovations to facilitate the work. However, achieving restoration at scale will require fundamental changes toeconomic and political systems. Chapter 4.2 lays out the broader conditions needed to enable this transition,
including financing mechanisms and policy frameworks.

4.1 Approaches, principles and tools for restoration
Ecosystem restoration encompasses a wide variety of approaches that contribute to conserving and repairingdamaged ecosystems (UNEP and FAO 2020). This may involve active restoration or the removal of drivers ofdegradation to ‘passively’ promote natural regeneration. Whatever the approach, restoration requires time, resources,
knowledge, enabling policies and governance if it is to contribute to human well-being, economic development, climate
stability and biodiversity conservation.
Many restoration projects and programmes have underperformed in the past. Adhering to standardized principles andguidelines, as well as continued monitoring and an adaptive approach, can ensure better performance and impact.

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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Restoration approaches

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATIONFOREST AND LANDSCAPERESTORATIONRESTORATION OF AQUATIC
PRODUCTION ECOSYSTEMS

Process

Process

Process

Assisting the recovery of a terrestrial,
freshwater or marine ecosystem thathas been degraded, damaged, or
destroyed.

Reversing the degradation of soils,
agricultural areas, forests andwatersheds thereby regaining theirecological functionality

Intended end point

Intended end point

Maintaining ecosystem structure andfunction to support food provisioning,
while minimizing impacts, rather thanrestoring ecosystems to an initial state
before production activity started.

Transition from degraded ecosystem toa reference ecosystem, which may be anatural or a cultural one.

Restoring multiple ecological, socialand economic functions across alandscape and generating a range of
ecosystem goods and services that
benefit multiple stakeholder groups.

Source: Gann et al. 2019

Source: Besseau et al. 2018

Intended end point
Large/oceanic marine ecosystems
supporting or affected by direct andindirect impacts of fishing gears andfisheries production; recovery throughchanges in fishing methods and gear
modification to rebuild fish stocks
and reduce adverse impacts on theenvironment. Specificities shownfor both freshwater ecosystems andcoastal ones with linkages to fisheries
and aquaculture.
Source: FAO 2020c

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Farming that uses soil conservation
as the entry point to regenerate andcontribute to multiple provisioning,
regulating and supporting services.

Intended end point
Enhancing environmental, social andeconomic dimensions of sustainable
food production. Soil carbon, soil healthand on-farm biodiversity are restored.
Sources: Schreefel et al. 2020; Giller et
al. 2021

Process
Rebuilding, following major humandisturbance, a natural ecosystem byrestoring natural processes and thecomplete or near complete food-web
at all trophic levels as a self-sustaining
and resilient ecosystem using biota
that would have been present had the
disturbance not occurred.

Intended end point
No pre-defined end point. Functioning
native ecosystems complete with fully
occupied trophic levels that are natureled across a range of landscape scales.
Source: IUCN CEM, n.d.

Photo: Axel Fassio/CIFOR

Process

REWILDING

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Photo: Aulia Erlangga/CIFOR

Principles for successful restoration
Governments do not have to choose between economic priorities and environmental concerns (Mansuy 2020), as therestoration agenda can help to deliver on goals for livelihoods, food and water security, international trade, poverty
alleviation and human rights (Perring et al. 2018; CPF 2021). However, sustainable restoration requires supportive andlasting social, economic and governance structures, engaged and empowered stakeholders, and a strong scientificevidence base to guide restorative practices. Restoration as a response to ecosystem degradation needs to address
its underlying causes. Achieving national restoration commitments will take not only the right policies and regulations,but also coherence across sectoral, environmental and economic policies to ensure the alignment of public incentives
and consistent implementation across national and sub-subnational levels (CPF 2021). Successful restoration caninvolve all actors in the land or seascape, from the private sector to local and rural communities to youth. Recent
research highlights 14 ‘meta-lessons’ from seven forest landscape restoration initiatives, providing a good example ofvarious approaches to restoration (Mansourian et al. forthcoming).
Due to social and cultural norms, women and men often hold different environmental knowledge, and thus havedifferent priorities for restoration (Sijapati Basnett et al. 2017). Failure to incorporate a gender-responsive approach– one that ensures women and men can fully participate in and equally benefit from interventions – could worsen
existing inequalities and limit the sustainability of restoration outcomes (IUCN 2017). Therefore, the Strategy of
the UN Decade on Restoration calls for the development and implementation of gender-responsive methods for
empowering women and girls in dialogue, planning, decision-making and implementation of ecosystem restoration(UNEP and FAO 2020).
Indigenous peoples are responsible for managing approximately 28 per cent of the world’s land surface and 37 percent of all remaining natural lands (Garnett et al. 2018). Through their traditional knowledge, customary sustainable
use and collective actions in the various ecosystems that they inhabit, indigenous peoples and local communities
play a vital role in both the conservation and restoration agendas (FPP 2018). Restoration plans developed incollaboration with indigenous and local communities must be equitable, ensuring that the human rights, tenure rights
and resources of all stakeholders – in particular the poorest and most vulnerable – are respected. Land tenure must
be clearly defined (Ding et al. 2018) and restoration efforts must ensure that the benefits generated are equitably
distributed (UNEP and FAO 2020).
Such principles can help to address challenges in restoration, including effective design and implementation,accounting for complex ecosystem dynamics in the context of climate change and navigating trade‐offs associatedwith land management priorities and decisions (Gann et al. 2019).
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Box 4.1 Guiding principles for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Common principles are critical for a shared vision of ecosystem restoration. Towards this end, the FAO-led Task
Force on Best Practices, the Society for Ecological Restoration, and IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management
led an expert consultation process. Based on a synthesis of published principles for restorative activities, theprocess resulted in nine proposed principles that underpin ecosystem restoration throughout the UN Decade andacross sectors, biomes and regions. The final wording and full descriptions of these principles will be developed
collaboratively during 2021 to support effective restoration efforts around the world.

Ecosystem restoration:

PRINCIPLE 1
Promotes inclusive andparticipatory governance, social
fairness and equity, from thestart and throughout the process
and outcomes.

PRINCIPLE 4
Addresses drivers of ecosystemdegradation.

PRINCIPLE 2
Includes a continuum of
restorative activities.

PRINCIPLE 5
Incorporates all types ofknowledge and promotes
their exchange throughout
the process.

PRINCIPLE 3
Aims to achieve the highest
level of recovery possible forecosystem health and humanwellbeing.

PRINCIPLE 6
Is tailored to the local context,
while considering the larger
landscape or seascape, andsocial-ecological and cultural
settings.

PRINCIPLE 7

PRINCIPLE 8

PRINCIPLE 9

Is based on well-defined shortand long-term ecological andsocioeconomic objectives andgoals.

Plans and undertakes
monitoring, evaluation,
and adaptive management
throughout the lifetime of the
project or program.

Integrates policies andmeasures to ensure longevity,
maintain funding and, whereappropriate, enhance andscale up interventions.

Technical and scientific developments
Recent developments have improved the ways we monitor ecosystems, identify degraded areas, work collaboratively
and restore ecosystems, making restoration easier. These new methods can be employed across different levels ofknowledge, resources, finances, and spatial and temporal scales. Here are three examples:

1. Remote monitoring
Harnessing the power of Earth observation has been instrumental in identifying degraded areas with potential
for restoration, in monitoring ongoing initiatives and in developing indicators to improve restoration outcomes(Worthington et al. 2020). Earth observation data collected by satellites, aeroplanes and drones have been rapidly
improving, producing datasets at high spatial and temporal resolution that enable us to monitor restoration withincreased precision. Access to data is being democratized through new platforms and tools that increase bothtransparency and access, allowing restoration stakeholders to monitor terrestrial and marine ecosystem health innear real-time from almost anywhere in the world (Grantham et al. 2020).
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However ‘eyes in the sky’ cannot detect all changes on the ground. Social media and other innovative technologies
can offer unexpected methods for monitoring by citizens. Smartphone apps put monitoring tools into the hands ofpractitioners, local communities and visitors. For example, the Regreening Africa App allows users in eight Africancountries to collect data on restoration projects, including the number of hectares regreened, the progress of
individual trees, and management practices used, as well as to document trainings.

Box 4.2 Monitoring the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
With the aim of supporting existing targets, goals and indicators, it is key for the UN Decade to have acentralized platform for monitoring restoration and measuring progress at all scales. The FAO-led Task Forceon Monitoring is working alongside UNEP, with support from the Rio Convention secretariats and experts fromall eight selected ecosystems, to develop the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration (FERM). Launching in 2021
on a geospatial platform, the FERM will enable the identification of global, regional and national indicators forrestoration, for all stakeholders of the UN Decade. The FERM platform will enable knowledge and technology
transfer, as well as capacity development for people, communities and countries.

2. Better knowledge sharing
Effective restoration is essential to the UN Decade’s success. However, what works in one place may have negative
consequences elsewhere. Scientific understanding of restoring ecosystems and the complex interactions between
habitats, people and climate has been developing rapidly. These advances must be able to reach those on the ground,and platforms such as the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism, Restoration Resource Center and Global
Tree Knowledge Platform bring together the latest resources, knowledge and databases on planting techniques, bestpractices and capacity building guidelines, maps and analysis packages, among others. Similar platforms exist formarine and freshwater ecosystems, such as NFI Fisheries Resources and Information System, Global Mangrove
Alliance and Allen Coral Atlas. These platforms help practitioners make informed decisions and enhance the successof their restoration projects.

3. Improved on-the-ground practices
Low-tech, cost-effective practices to enhance the success of restoration are becoming widespread, easily accessible
and scalable. For example, farmer-assisted natural regeneration and bio-reclamation techniques have beensuccessful in restoring drylands (see Great Green Wall example in Chapter 3.7).
Restoring millions of hectares to meet forest and landscape restoration targets will require many millions of plants,
seedlings and seeds where natural regeneration will not meet restoration needs. Nurseries and seed banks, whichallow for experimentation, could play a critical role in creating healthy and resilient ecosystems, particularly whenplanting in harsh climates and landscapes (Haase and Davis 2017; Chapman et al. 2019).
Incorporating agroforestry practices into the production of crops such as cocoa and coffee increases tree diversity
and cover on plantations. It also helps improve and restore habitats for wildlife and provide carbon storage. When thecorrect balance between trees and crops is achieved, agroforestry has the potential to increase yields while offering
alternative income streams for farmers through fruit or timber production from shade trees (Jose 2009).
Finally, new platforms such as Collect Earth bring together Earth observation datasets and facilitate new ways ofworking together to process and analyse data, such as ‘mapathons’ to identify areas with potential for restoration.
The El Salvador government used this approach to identify restoration opportunities in the Cerron Grande watershed(Reytar et al. 2021). These collaborative approaches help to include the voices of local communities and strengthen
their capacity to take an active role in restoration.
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

4.2 Broader conditions needed for successful
ecosystem restoration
Investing in ecosystem restoration will be fundamental to transitioning to sustainable economic developmentthat works in balance with nature. Directing financial flows towards such investment requires better integration of
information on ecosystems into economic planning tools. It also requires financial systems that channel investments
towards economic activities that enhance, rather than degrade, ecosystems (Dasgupta 2021).
Highlighting the interlinkages between restoring ecosystem health and economic sustainability will be key to moving
restoration forward in the context of the build-back better recovery plans, as well as to ensuring the equitable deliveryof benefits (Aronson et al. 2020). Initiatives to raise awareness of the risks posed by ecosystem degradation will also
be crucial for raising restoration finance (Dasgupta 2021).
Despite the economic imperatives, over-exploitation of natural resources is embedded in our economies andgovernance systems. Breaking this habit requires recognizing the environmental externalities – the unaccounted-for
consequences for nature and future generations – of our current approaches to planning economic development.
Fundamental to this will be addressing perverse subsidies and other economic incentives that drive ecosystemdegradation. Currently, worldwide activities that degrade ecosystems are subsidized at an estimated USD 4–6 trillion
per year (Dasgupta 2021).
However, we can’t expect markets alone to solve the problem. The path to a more sustainable use of ecosystems must
begin with the development of inclusive wealth measures – which capture natural, social, human and manufactured
capital and are thus more accurate ways to measure economic progress – and natural capital accounting. The recent
adoption of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) framework by
the international statistical community is a major step towards the integration of ecosystems into national accounts
and macroeconomic planning. The SEEA EA is part of the System of National Accounts, organizing information on
ecosystems in a way that is consistent with national statistics on economic activity. It is a key part of the tool kit forreflecting the value of ecosystems in public policies, plans and economic systems. For example, a recent study on
Pakistan shows that while inclusive wealth has increased over the past three decades, natural capital has declined formost of that period. A very recent upturn in natural capital may reflect Pakistan’s efforts on restoration. This type ofcountry-level analysis provides policymakers with a framework for decision-making to ensure increases in inclusive
wealth are sustainable (UNEP forthcoming).
Effective implementation and uptake of integrated environmental-economic planning can transform public
expenditure patterns and deliver improved outcomes for ecosystems, for instance, by helping to inform:•

Investment in ecosystem-based livelihoods and adaptation that directs public expenditure towards activities
based on the sustainable use of ecosystems and on building the resilience of landscapes (e.g., with respect toclimate change).

•

Integrated economic planning across sectors and landscapes to direct funds that capture the multiple benefits
that investment in ecosystems may deliver and to inform cost sharing.

•

Subsidy reform to incentivize ecosystem restoration, for example via payments for ecosystem services.
Substantial revenues could be made available by removing subsidies that currently damage ecosystems(Dasgupta 2021).

•

Taxing activities that degrade ecosystems and creating revenue for ecosystem restoration.

•

Charging appropriate fees to use ecosystems and ecosystem services to help address unsustainable open accessuse and create revenues for restoration.

The enabling environment for private sector investment needs to be supported via regulatory frameworks, financemechanisms, safeguards for investment, and through public-private partnerships. Public funding can facilitate private
investment to transform conventional production systems into more sustainable models using de-risking tools suchas guarantees, layered funds and support for innovative microfinance initiatives (CPF 2021).

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Innovative finance mechanisms including blended finance have been developed in recent years to encourage private
investment in bankable nature solutions (Mirova 2019; WWF 2020). Developing the capacity of entrepreneurs andpromoters to develop business models for restoration is also essential to expand innovative models at scale (e.g.,
via the Restoration Factory developed by UNEP, FAO and IUCN; Restoration Factory 2021). The agriculture sector is a
key global driver of ecosystem degradation (Benton et al. 2021). However, subsidy reform, sustainable intensification,action on food waste and encouraging people to adopt a diet containing fewer animal products would allow land to bereleased from conventional agriculture (Strassburg et al. 2020).
Estimating the global costs of ecosystem restoration from the existing literature is not straightforward, since most
cost assessments typically neither focus on restoration alone, nor include all forms of restoration. According to one
source, the annual funding gap for both restoration and terrestrial conservation is estimated at USD 300 billion (Dinget al. 2018). A more recent study looks at the cost of the nature-based solutions on land needed to meet climate,biodiversity and land degradation targets; it states that by 2030 investments will need to be over USD 350 billion perannum (UNEP, WEF, ELD forthcoming). This does not include the cost of restoring marine ecosystems.

Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT

Communities and civil society need to be engaged and supported to secure ecosystem restoration across scales.
Public and private funds can help communities secure land tenure and support local investment in ecosystem
restoration. These may be encouraged based on payments for ecosystem services or in response to voluntary
environmental performance and certification commitments. Education is also vital to ensuring that future generations
benefit from a greater understanding of nature and an appreciation of its value (Dasgupta 2021).

Examples from around the world
The Colombian government has established the Certificates for Forest Incentives (CIF ‘Certificado deIncentivo Forestal’; Law No. 139 of 1994). The programme pays landowners to plant trees, with a higher
payment for native species. So far, it has enabled the restoration of 258,075 hectares of forest over two
decades. In 2015 an environmental trust fund (BanCO2) funded by private firms, citizens’ donations andpublic funds, was established to promote forest and landscape restoration in the country (Mansourian 2020).
In the United States, the Forest Resilience Bond uses private capital to fund restoration activities thatdeliver long-term cost savings for water utilities, electric companies and the U.S. Forest Service. In thispublic-private partnership developed by the American Forest Foundation, Blue Forest Conservation andthe World Resources Institute, beneficiaries pass along savings to investors through payments to theForest Resilience Bond (Blue Forest n.d.; Ding et al. 2018).
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Photo: Florian Fussstetter/UNEP

CHAPTER 5

HOW THE UN DECADE WORKS37

5.1 Objectives for the UN Decade
The UN Decade has the overarching goal to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems around the world.
The vision for the UN Decade is a world where – for the health and well-being of all life on Earth and that of future
generations – the relationship between humans and nature has been restored, where the area of healthy ecosystems
is increasing and where ecosystem loss, fragmentation and degradation has been ended.
This is an endeavour that no single entity can undertake alone. It requires political will, innovation and collaboration.
The UN Decade aims to catalyse the delivery of existing restoration goals, targets and initiatives, as well as thedevelopment of new ambitions for impact.
Underpinning this vision are three main goals of the UN Decade’s Strategy:•••

Goal 1. Enhancing global, regional, national and local commitments and actions to prevent, halt and reverse thedegradation of ecosystems.
Goal 2. Increasing our understanding of the multiple benefits of successful ecosystem restoration.
Goal 3. Applying knowledge of ecosystem restoration in our education systems and within all public andprivate sector decision-making.

Supporting these goals are three action pathways:•••

Pathway I “Global movement” will generate the peer-driven, participatory global movement that focuses on
upscaling restoration.
Pathway II “Political will” will empower leaders in the public and private sectors to champion restoration.
Pathway III “Delivery at scale” will generate the technical capacity that is needed to restore ecosystems
at scale.

5.2 Mandate, structure and strategy
MandateFounded in a resolution by the UN General Assembly in March 2019 (UNGA 2019), the UN Decade stems from astrong political commitment from UN Member States to build global momentum for ecosystem restoration, asa requirement for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. UNEP and FAO have been asked to co-lead theimplementation of the UN Decade in collaboration with the secretariats of the Rio Conventions, other relevant
multilateral environmental agreements and entities of the United Nations System. Joint evaluations of the UN
Decade’s progress will be undertaken by UNEP and FAO Evaluation Offices, and the Secretary-General will reportto the UN General Assembly at its eighty-first session on the status of implementation, including its contribution to
the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Structure
The UN Decade itself will have two layers of implementation.
The first layer, led by FAO and UNEP with a growing number of partner organizations, comprises the activities
undertaken by the UN Decade’s core team to catalyse and support a movement that starts and scales up restoration
initiatives globally. It also includes the goals of the UNFCCC, UNCCD and CBD (Box 5.1), the Sustainable Development
Goals and the Bonn Challenge’s target of restoring 350 million hectares of degraded landscapes.
The second layer is made up of the self-orchestrated activities by the actors and stakeholders that engage inrestoration activities around the world. The UN Decade has a diverse range of partners, including researchers,
practitioners, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations such as Faith for
Earth. Restoration is a monumental task and every country, company, organization and individual has a role to play.
Join the #GenerationRestoration movement.
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Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Box 5.1 The Rio Conventions and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN General Assembly requested that UNEP and FAO, as the lead agencies of the UN Decade on
Ecosystem Restoration, collaborate closely with the Rio Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change andDesertification. All three Convention Secretariats are official partners of the UN Decade. The UN Decadeaims to facilitate synergies between the Conventions and to support each Convention in achieving their
specific decisions and objectives related to ecosystem restoration. These include:•

The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) is preparing a post-2020 global biodiversity framework with 2050
goals and 2030 targets that are directly relevant to ecosystem restoration. In several previous decisions,
CBD has highlighted the need and guidance for ecosystem restoration to achieve its objectives. In decision
14/30, Parties to the CBD called for the establishment of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

•

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) aims to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN),
including restoration of degraded lands in the context of integrated landscape management. The UNCCD
secretariat supports countries to develop LDN transformative projects and programmes that enhancenational capacities and leverage innovative financing.

•

Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), restoration activities can contributeto achieving the objectives of the Convention and Paris Agreement in several ways: countries can include
restoration actions in their Nationally Determined Contributions; restoration actions can be part of reducing
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation ‘plus’ the conservation, sustainable management
and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+); and the central role of vulnerability and adaptationassessment of ecosystems in National Adaptation Plans is instrumental to ecosystem restoration.

Strategy
Focused on triggering a coordinated global effort, the Strategy for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
was developed throughout 2019 and 2020 in an open and collaborative manner, built from input from over 1,000
organizations, institutions, governments, businesses and individuals. The Strategy is designed to connect andempower at all scales, with everyone able to see the ways they can contribute (www.decadeonrestoration.org/
strategy). The UN Decade Action Plan is currently under public consultation. It will articulate how the Strategy will be
implemented effectively and collaboratively.
When done efficiently and sustainably, and when complemented by conservation, ecosystem restoration cansignificantly contribute to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular life below water (SDG 14) and life onland (SDG 15). Initiatives that incorporate principles of gender equality and restorative justice in restoration efforts canalso provide work opportunities and improve income streams (SDGs 1, 5, 8, 10, 16), as well as support cross-sectoralcollaboration, learning and innovation on the use of ecosystem goods and services (SDGs 4, 7, 9, 17). This can help
countries resolve conflicts over natural resources and limit associated migration. Finally, central to all activities of
the UN Decade is the need to recognize the human rights of all people, including local communities and indigenous
peoples (UNEP and FAO 2020).

39

5.3 Supporting the development of a global movement
Achieving the vision and goals of the UN Decade will require a concerted global effort. To guide and accelerate theglobal restoration movement, as of 2020, the UN Decade has established five Task Forces:•

Best Practices: UN Decade’s core team and partners will provide technical support to ecosystem restoration
initiatives globally. A FAO-led Task Force, working across more than 35 organizations, has been establishedto prepare guiding principles and collate good practices on ecosystem restoration and indigenous knowledge
around the world (see Box 4.1). It will focus on the dissemination of restoration knowledge over the next ten years.

•

Finance: The World Bank is chairing the Finance Task Force, which will: 1) provide guidance to reorient
subsidies towards ecosystem restoration in an appropriate manner; 2) counter economic forces and vested
interests that result in ecosystem degradation; and, 3) incentivize public and corporate investors to co-invest in
ecosystem restoration, including in areas where the benefits from restoration are predominantly public goods.

•

Monitoring: To avoid extra reporting burdens, the UN Decade will not establish formal country monitoring andreporting. Instead, it will employ and build on existing data reporting systems within relevant international
commitments, conventions and plans. An FAO-led Monitoring Task Force, with support from over 270 experts
across 100 organizations, is identifying the best options for monitoring global progress of the UN Decadeand how to fill current information gaps. See Box 4.2 for more information on the Framework for Ecosystem
Restoration Monitoring.

•

Science: This IUCN-led Task Force will provide an authoritative scientific reference for the UN Decade. It
will collate and convey concise information and concepts of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystem
restoration based on rigorous evidence. The Task Force will aim to address pertinent scientific questions thatmight arise during the implementation of the UN Decade and provide guidance to UNEP, FAO and all partners.

•

Youth: The involvement of youth in the UN Decade and #GenerationRestoration movement is criticallyimportant, not only for the sustainability of restoration initiatives beyond 2030 but also for promotingintergenerational equity. During the UN Decade, the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth, throughits UNEP Major Group for Children and Youth and SDG 2 Working Group, will facilitate the engagement of youth
advocates, youth-led restoration initiatives and a wide range of formal and informal youth groups.

Advisory Board
As the main external body of the UN Decade’s governance structure, the Board’s main objective is to offer relevant
perspectives and schools of thought in response to the challenges and barriers for implementing the UN Decade.
The Board will provide guidance to the UN Decade’s lead agencies, including to the UNEP/FAO Strategy Group,
the UN Decade Task Forces and to all UN Decade partners. It is comprised of leading thinkers and restoration
practitioners from all regions and across stakeholder groups.

UN Decade Digital Hub
In addition to technical support, the UN Decade will also communicate and raise awareness about restoration
efforts around the world. The Hub will showcase activities as well as platforms that have regional or global
application to increase the scale, scope and pace of restoration. Digital content developed for the hub will include
modules in video games that feature ecosystem restoration and the development of lesson plans on ecosystem
restoration for teachers. The Digital Hub will also facilitate dialogues between stakeholders in different sectors
to reach consensus on how to develop land-use plans that maximize ecosystem restoration benefits, as well as
connecting investors with restoration implementers.

Everyone
Finally, since reviving ecosystems is a rewarding task that anyone can get involved in, the UN Decade Partners haveco-developed the Ecosystem Restoration Playbook to inform the actions and choices of individuals and organizations
across stakeholder groups. This practical guide shows how anyone, anywhere can contribute meaningfully to healing
our ailing planet.

40

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

Restoration initiatives around the world

4 PER 1000
INITIATIVE

BONN
CHALLENGE

Region / Ecosystem

Region / Ecosystem

GlobalDescription / Target
A network todemonstrate the roleof agricultural soils
in climate mitigationand food security

RESTORE/EUROPEAN
CENTRE FOR RIVERRESTORATIONGREAT GREEN WALL
INITIATIVE

Region / Ecosystem

Africa / Landscapes

Global / Forests andlandscapesGreater Europe / Rivers

Description / Target

Description / Target

350 MhaTarget of 350
Mha forest andlandscapes
restored by 2030

A network to promoteand build capacity
for ecological riverrestoration acrossEuropeRegion / Ecosystem

Description / Target

100 MhaTo restore
100 million ha ofcurrently degraded
land by 2030

GLOBAL MANGROVEALLIANCE

GLOBAL PEATLANDSINITIATIVEINTERNATIONAL CORAL
REEF INITIATIVEREGREENING
AFRICA

Region / Ecosystem

Region / Ecosystem

Region / Ecosystem

Region / Ecosystem

Global / Mangroves

Global / Peatlands

Global8 countries in
sub-Saharan Africa

Description / Target

Description / Target

Description / Target

Description / Target

20%

Focused on theconservation
restoration andsustainable
management ofpeatlands

An informal
partnership between
nations andorganizations thatstrive to preserve
coral reefs and related
ecosystems aroundthe world

500K

Aims to increase
global mangrove
cover by
20% by 2030

Restoring ecosystems
in 8 countries andimproving theresilience of 500,000
households

Find out more about restoration initiatives
around the world.

41

Photo: iStockphotos

THE WAY FORWARD“Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority foreveryone, everywhere.”– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 2021

42

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global rallying call from the United Nations General Assembly tomake peace with nature and build back better. However, meeting the scale, scope and pace needed to achieveeffective restoration is no small task. We need to catalyse a global movement. This movement will be diverse,
including local communities and activists, the private sector, finance institutions, researchers, NGOs andnational governments.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global rallying call from the United Nations General Assembly tomake peace with nature and build back better. However, meeting the scale, scope and pace needed to achieveeffective restoration is no small task. We need to catalyse a global movement. This movement will be diverse,
including local communities and activists, the private sector, finance institutions, researchers, NGOs andnational governments.
Achieving the aims of the UN Decade requires all actors to engage in effective restoration of all degradedecosystems. Specifically, we call on:

All stakeholders•

To recognize the importance of human rights, tenure rights, and traditional ecological knowledge forecosystem restoration.

The UN System•

To collaborate with UNEP, FAO, the Rio Conventions and other partners to implement the UN Decade strategy.

National governments
•

•
•
•
•

•
•

To incorporate significant allocations for ecosystem restoration as a central component of their COVID-19
recovery plans, to ensure that they deliver a green, sustainable and fair recovery, and to include ecosystem
restoration in their Nationally Determined Contributions, National Adaptation Plans and other relevant
development and environmental plans and strategies.
Parties to existing restoration initiatives, including under the Rio Conventions, other multilateral agreements
and the Bonn Challenge, to deliver on existing commitments for restoration.
Countries involved in coastal and marine restoration to develop and deliver on similar ambitious restoration
goals – a ‘Bonn Challenge equivalent’ for the ocean.
Parties to the Rio Conventions to embed strong commitments on restoration within their existing and emerging
agreements, frameworks and instruments.
Heads of State and Government, and Ministers of Finance, to become champions for ecosystem restoration; toadopt an inclusive wealth approach for national accounting, and to repurpose fiscal policies that are degrading
the natural world towards restoration.
Governments (that are in a position to do so) to provide financial support to developing countries and civilsociety organizations for their restoration efforts.
Public financial institutions and regulatory bodies, working with private financial institutions, to develop andstrengthen instruments, including co-financing to de-risk private investments, to ensure that financial flows
fully support restoration efforts.

Local governments and cities••

To include restoration goals in jurisdictional and urban development plans, and raise awareness across the
population about the importance of healthy ecosystems and urban green spaces.
To invest in the health and productivity of ecosystems that sustain critical urban infrastructure and services.

Private sector••

Private sector companies that rely on ecosystems for their supply chains to source only from sustainablesources; to eliminate deforestation from supply chains, and to re-invest significantly into supply chain security
through ecosystem conservation and restoration.
Private financial institutions, working with public bodies as needed, to invest in ecosystem restoration as an
emerging asset class.
43

Research and education institutions•

To further increase our understanding of best practices, monitoring and the multiple benefits of successful
ecosystem restoration.
To educate the next generation of citizens to be aware of the value of nature, and to train a generation ofentrepreneurs who can scale up restoration efforts.

•

Civil society•

Indigenous peoples and local communities across the world to build on their knowledge, experience andcapacity for action to deliver restoration.
Civil society organizations to include and prioritize restoration and related awareness-raising efforts in theirprogrammes.
Youth organizations to play an active leadership role in ecosystem restoration locally, nationally and globally,
and to be involved in the governance of the UN Decade for a #GenerationRestoration movement.
Citizens across the world to actively participate in the UN Decade and to consider their consumption choices,with a view to restoring healthy ecosystems for the benefit of present and future generations.

••Photo: Stephanie Foote/UNEP•

44

Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate

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Photo: GRID-Arendal / Peter Prokosch

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Cover photo: Nepal, Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR