The area of land and sea under restoration is roughly equivalent to the size of Kazakhstan, while the projects have created more than 1 million green jobs. “We are witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history,” UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said.
However, restoration efforts must accelerate substantially to meet the global commitment to restore about 1 billion hectares by 2030.
The findings were released during the COP17 UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, at the halfway point of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Annual restoration financing must increase more than fourfold from $64 billion to $296 billion.
The additional investment could create as many as 32 million jobs globally by 2030. “Five years into the UN Decade, the message is clear: restoration works,” Food and Agriculture Organisation Director-General Dongyu Qu said.
Qu called for restoration to become an integral part of sustainable land, water and natural-resource management and the transformation of global food systems.
Restoring 15% of priority ecosystems could prevent 60% of projected species extinctions and capture the equivalent of 30% of carbon dioxide emissions.
Restoration is also essential for food and water security, climate resilience, employment and community well-being.
Progress remains uneven. Terrestrial restoration has reached almost half of the target to place 30% of ecosystems under restoration, but progress involving freshwater, marine and coastal environments remains limited.
The Report warned that projects must continue long enough to allow biodiversity and ecosystems to recover while producing lasting benefits for communities.
Governments must also address the underlying causes of degradation, including unsustainable production, pollution and damaging land and marine use. “We cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while we destroy it with the other,” Convention on Biological Diversity Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker said.
Schomaker called for stronger monitoring systems to ensure restoration efforts produced durable environmental and social benefits.
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
