Nature restoration reaches 252m hectares, UN says

Countries are restoring about 252 million hectares of nature, a record documented level but still short of global 2030 targets, a United Nations report published Thursday said.

Doreen Robinson of the UN Environment Programme said the report captured the largest documented restoration effort in history. The restored area is about the size of Argentina or Algeria.

The report said the pace of restoration must triple to meet the 2030 target of one billion hectares, and that funding must increase, especially from the private sector.

Restoration efforts recorded in 149 countries are mostly on land, covering 232 million hectares. The report recorded 11 million hectares of inland waters and 5.7 million hectares of marine and coastal waters under restoration.

It warned that restoration in freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems lags far behind ambition even though those ecosystems are degrading at the highest rates.

The report said restoration work has created one million related jobs, with a goal of reaching 32 million by 2030. China accounted for 137 million hectares of land restoration, ahead of Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.

The report was published during the COP17 biodiversity summit in Armenia.