UN declares 2021 to 2030 ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’

There’s a clearer understanding of that now, and the broad movement for restoration now has many years of experience
- Tim Christophersen, UN Environment

On March 1 the United Nations General Assembly approved a massive global target for the next decade: restore the world’s deforested and degraded ecosystems. Worldwide there are more than 2 billion hectares that could potentially be restored. This could support and improve the wellbeing of 3.2 billion people. Priority ecosystems include wetlands and aquatic ecosystems like mangroves, which are disappearing faster than terrestrial ecosystems.

This “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” emphasizes scaling-up restoration activities to increase the larger impact on severely degraded areas. The goal has the potential to raise political will and unlock funding for restoration work in many countries, while increasing awareness within the public about the importance of restoration in combating climate change, biodiversity loss, and human wellbeing and livelihoods. It builds on comittments in existing goals, like the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares of ecosystems by 2030.

Implementation of the Decade will be led by UN Environment and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

Read more from the Global Landscapes Forum.