Recognition of the need to restore degraded landscapes is accelerating at pace. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (the UN Decade) has triggered a global movement to rally individual action, financial investment, and political backing to prevent, halt and reverse the loss of nature. In October, at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) conference in Cali, Colombia, experts and policymakers focused on mobilizing global action to implement all 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). Target 2 (the restoration target) encourages all parties to bring 30% of degraded ecosystems under effective restoration by 2030. In December restoration also received significant attention at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification COP. In addition, incoming regulations like the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) are creating mandatory obligations to restore previously degraded lands. These initiatives are driving countries, industry, and civil society to elevate investment in, implementation of, and reporting about ecosystem restoration. Corporations and investors increasingly understand community expectations to invest in the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services – because their businesses depend on or impact these resources upon which all life depends. But ecosystem restoration is inherently uncertain – ecosystems do not always react as we expect them to, and therefore restoration projects do not always achieve their intended outcomes. This uncertainty can be due to variability in, for example, landscape ecology and climate, understanding of effective design and implementation, funding and policy frameworks, and the level of community engagement. An increasing number of globally relevant…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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