The global movement to restore degraded ecosystems has reached an unprecedented scale, yet a massive funding gap threatens to undermine its long-term success. According to a landmark report launched at the COP17 biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, the world must rapidly scale up its financial commitments to meet critical international targets.

The report, titled Nature’s comeback - Scaling ecosystem restoration for people and planet, marks the halfway point for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which runs through 2030. It provides a comprehensive assessment of global efforts to revive degraded environments, highlighting both remarkable achievements and severe funding shortfalls.

The Scale of the Global Restoration Movement

Currently, the global restoration movement has mobilized efforts across a vast expanse of land and sea. Some 252 million hectares across 149 countries are under active restoration. This represents an area roughly the size of Kazakhstan, making it the largest documented effort of its kind in human history.

This massive mobilization has already delivered significant socio-economic benefits, including the creation of more than one million green jobs. Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), emphasized the historic nature of this milestone, stating, “Today, we are witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history.”

The Halfway Assessment: Progress Toward 2030 Targets

Despite these historic achievements, the report warns that current efforts are insufficient to meet global targets. Under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, nations have committed to restoring around one billion hectares of land—an area roughly the size of China—by 2030. Additionally, the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework mandates that 30 per cent of the world’s ecosystems must be under conservation by the end of this period.

To achieve these ambitious goals, the report calls for a rapid acceleration of restoration activities, particularly within freshwater, marine, and coastal ecosystems. While terrestrial restoration has progressed significantly, marine and coastal initiatives remain far more limited.

The Financial Imperative: Bridging the Quadruple Funding Gap

This massive increase in funding should not be viewed merely as a cost, but as a highly productive investment. According to the report's projections, scaling annual funding to $296 billion could create up to 32 million jobs worldwide by 2030.

Dongyu Qu, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which co-published the report alongside UNEP and the UN biodiversity secretariat, affirmed the efficacy of these initiatives: “Five years into the UN Decade, the message is clear: restoration works.” However, he noted that the ongoing challenge is "to make restoration an integral part of the sustainable management of land, water and natural resources, and to have a coherent transformation of agrifood systems."

Ecological and Climate Dividends

Investing in nature's recovery is essential for securing global food and water supplies, enhancing climate resilience, and supporting human wellbeing. The ecological returns on restoration are profound:

  • Restoring just 15 per cent of global priority areas has the potential to prevent 60 per cent of projected species extinctions.
  • Successful restoration efforts can sequester 30 per cent of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, providing a critical buffer against global climate change.

Addressing the Drivers of Degradation

For the restoration movement to be durable, governments must look beyond active planting and conservation to address the root causes of environmental decline. Progress remains highly variable across different regions and ecosystems. While terrestrial restoration has reached nearly half of its 30 per cent target, marine and coastal ecosystems lag far behind.

Astrid Schomaker, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, warned against contradictory policies: “We cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while we destroy it with the other one.” She urged governments to address the underlying drivers of ecosystem degradation and invest heavily in robust monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the restoration progress achieved so far is sustained over the long term.