252 million hectares of nature are being restored in 149 countries, a UN report finds

An area of land and sea the size of Kazakhstan is now being restored worldwide. A UN report finds that 252 million hectares across 149 countries are under restoration, creating more than one million green jobs, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on 29 October. It is the largest documented global restoration effort to date.

The first global check at the halfway mark

The report, Nature's comeback – scaling ecosystem restoration for people and planet, was published halfway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) by FAO, UNEP and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is the first comprehensive assessment of progress toward pledges to restore about one billion hectares and the global target to have at least 30% of degraded ecosystems under effective restoration by 2030. It was launched at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, in Yerevan.

“Today, we are witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history.” — Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP

Asia leads, the oceans lag

Asia accounts for 192.2 million hectares of the total, followed by Africa with 36.3 million, Europe with 9.1 million, North and Central America with 5.8 million, South America with 5.4 million and Oceania with 3.2 million. The report says these figures reflect the scale of activity, land area and monitoring capacity, not performance. China reports the largest land area under restoration, 127.4 million hectares.

Land restoration has reached nearly half of the 2030 target. Freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems, which are degrading fastest, lag far behind: only 11 million hectares of freshwater and 5.7 million hectares of marine and coastal ecosystems are documented as under restoration, though limited reporting may mean these are underestimates. The share of countries reporting wetland restoration programs has risen from 8% to 54% since 2022.

Money is the missing piece

Reaching the 2030 commitments will require annual restoration finance to more than quadruple, from $64 billion to $296 billion. The largest needs are in agroforestry, restorative reforestation, peatland restoration and seagrass restoration. That investment could create up to 32 million new jobs by 2030, the report estimates. Research cited in the report suggests that restoring just 15% of global priority areas could store 30% of the carbon dioxide emitted since the industrial revolution and help avoid 60% of species extinctions. “Five years into the UN Decade, the message is clear: restoration works,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.

“We cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while we destroy it with the other one,” said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. At the launch, five initiatives in China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Italy and the United States were named UN World Restoration Flagships. Flagship successes include the recovery of mountain gorillas in East Africa, jaguars in Brazil, snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan and Ganges river dolphins in India. More restoration stories are collected under habitat restoration.