A global restoration drive covering 252 million hectares across 149 countries has created more than one million green jobs, but efforts must accelerate to meet the world’s 2030 nature recovery targets, a United Nations report has warned.
The report, Nature’s Comeback – Scaling Ecosystem Restoration for People and Planet, calls for annual restoration financing to increase more than fourfold, from $64 billion to $296 billion by 2030. The investment could generate up to 32 million additional jobs worldwide.
Published midway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), the report provides the first comprehensive global assessment of progress towards commitments to restore about one billion hectares and protect degraded ecosystems.
It was jointly produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and launched during the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17).
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UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said the scale and pace of restoration remained insufficient despite growing global momentum.
“By 2030, we must turn inspiring initiatives into systemwide action – shifting to restoration economies that protect what remains and restore what has been degraded,” Andersen said.
The report identified freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems as priority areas requiring urgent attention, noting that progress in restoring them lagged behind efforts on land.
Asia accounts for the largest documented restoration area, with 192.2 million hectares, followed by Africa with 36.3 million hectares. Europe has 9.1 million hectares under restoration, North and Central America 5.8 million hectares, South America 5.4 million hectares and Oceania 3.2 million hectares.
The report cautioned that these figures reflect differences in the scale of restoration activity, regional land area and monitoring capacity, rather than a ranking of regional performance.
Terrestrial restoration has reached nearly half the global target of placing 30 per cent of degraded land ecosystems under effective restoration by 2030. China leads in documented terrestrial restoration, with 127.4 million hectares, while significant areas have also been reported in Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
However, only 11 million hectares of freshwater ecosystems and 5.7 million hectares of marine and coastal ecosystems are documented as undergoing restoration across 62 and 46 countries, respectively.
The report noted that limited reporting on aquatic restoration could mean the figures underestimate actual progress. It also highlighted growing momentum in wetland recovery, with the proportion of countries reporting implemented wetland restoration or rehabilitation programmes rising from eight per cent in 2022 to 54 per cent.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said restoration must become integral to sustainable land and water management and the transformation of agrifood systems.
“Healthy ecosystems are vital for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind,” he said.
Beyond supporting biodiversity, ecosystem restoration can strengthen food and water security, improve climate resilience and create jobs. Research cited in the report indicates that restoring just 15 per cent of global priority areas could capture and store 30 per cent of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions released since the Industrial Revolution and help prevent 60 per cent of species extinctions.
The report also highlighted recovery efforts benefiting species such as mountain gorillas in East Africa, jaguars in Brazil, snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan and Ganges River dolphins in India.
To meet global targets, the report estimated that the largest annual restoration investments would be required for agroforestry, at $87 billion; restorative reforestation, $52 billion; peatland restoration, $44 billion; and seagrass restoration, $28 billion.
CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker said governments must tackle the underlying causes of ecosystem degradation while investing in monitoring systems to sustain restoration gains.
“We cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while we destroy it with the other one,” she said.
The report called for sustained political commitment, secure land tenure and meaningful participation by Indigenous Peoples and other rights-holders to ensure restoration delivers lasting environmental and social benefits.
It also urged countries to move beyond isolated projects towards restoration economies that support long-term ecological recovery, sustainable livelihoods and economic value.
The assessment draws on government-endorsed data submitted through global reporting processes and information from restoration initiatives reported to FAO’s Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring.
