Global nature restoration progresses toward target goals
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United Nations agencies reported that countries are currently restoring a vast amount of degraded land across the globe. The progress covers an area 5.6 times the size of Sweden.
World nations pledged in 2022 to restore 1 billion hectares of destroyed land to flourishing nature by 2030. Current progress stands at 252 million hectares. While the pace needs to triple to meet the deadline, the total area currently being restored is larger than at any previous time.
Two UN agencies noted that restoring just 15 percent of priority areas could capture 30 percent of the carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution and help prevent 60 percent of species extinctions. Restoration projects are active in 149 countries. These efforts aim to reverse damage caused by overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive species. The report identifies 35 flagship projects, such as creating wildlife corridors to reconnect fragmented forests in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
These corridors allow animals like the jaguar and the golden-headed lion tamarin to move freely. Other projects include restoring the snow leopard in Kyrgyzstan through ecotourism, cleaning the Ganges river in India to help the Ganges river dolphin, and planting three million trees in Milan, Italy. In Seattle, authorities restored 831 hectares of land by removing invasive plants to make room for native species. The UN selected five new projects during a biodiversity meeting, including two located in urban areas.
The report relies on data submitted by countries and various project analyses to provide the first global estimate of these efforts.
