Working together for Ecosystem Restoration

Environmental degradation impacts on the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people globally whilst the loss of ecosystem services leads to a reduction of more than 10% of our global economic output (UNEP, 2021). A total of 33% of marine fish stocks are overfished and around one-thirds of the world’s farmland is degraded. Trends of ecosystem degradation have also been recorded for ecosystems at regional scale, with a recent EU-wide assessment concluding that the current potential of ecosystems to deliver timber, protection against floods, crop pollination, and nature-based recreation is equal to or lower than the baseline value for 2010.

The impact on biodiversity is equally upsetting. An estimated 32 million hectares of primary and recovering forest were lost between 2010 and 2015, and approximately half the live coral cover on coral reefs has been lost since the 1870s, as indicated by the IPBES Global Assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Around 40% of all the world’s species live and breed in wetlands but the world has lost 87% of its wetlands since 1700. One out of four mammal species and an estimated 41% of the amphibians are threatened with extinction and whilst globally only a small proportion of the insect species have been evaluated, local declines of pollinator species have been recorded.

Most of us would readily accept the notion that nature is essential for human existence and good quality of life, but in using and extracting resources from the environment we have damaged its ability to sustain human communities, with benefits and burdens being disproportionately shared and experienced differently among social groups, countries, and regions.

The degradation and destruction of natural capital needs to be turned around by an equal, positive, wave of responses that transform society through short and long-term actions that drive a green recovery. In this regard, the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 represents a distinct opportunity to collaborate and make meaningful headway in preventing, halting, and reversing the degradation of our planet’s ecosystems.