The United Nations has warned that global efforts to restore degraded ecosystems remain below the pace required to meet 2030 environmental targets, despite 252 million hectares being restored across 149 countries in what it describes as the largest documented restoration effort to date.
The findings are contained in the Restoration Progress Report: Nature’s Comeback – Scaling Ecosystem Restoration for People and Planet, published on October 29, 2026, by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The assessment, the first comprehensive global stocktake of ecosystem restoration, found that the ongoing initiatives have created more than one million green jobs, while highlighting the need for countries to increase investment and accelerate restoration activities.
The report says governments have committed to restoring approximately one billion hectares by 2030, alongside the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework target of placing at least 30 per cent of degraded terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems under effective restoration.
However, the 252 million hectares currently documented represent only 34 per cent of the indicative global benchmark associated with the 2030 target, leaving a substantial gap to close within the remaining years.
Progress has been uneven across different ecosystems, with land restoration advancing faster than efforts involving freshwater, marine and coastal environments.
Terrestrial restoration has reached nearly half of the global target, while freshwater ecosystems have achieved only five per cent and marine and coastal ecosystems 23 per cent of their respective restoration benchmarks.
The report documents approximately 11 million hectares of freshwater ecosystems under restoration across 62 countries, compared with 5.7 million hectares of marine and coastal ecosystems across 46 countries.
These ecosystems are also among those experiencing the fastest rates of degradation, raising concerns about the limited scale of interventions despite their importance to biodiversity, livelihoods and climate resilience.
The assessment notes that inadequate monitoring and reporting could mean the documented restoration activities in aquatic ecosystems are lower than the actual work taking place.
Regionally, Asia accounts for the largest share of documented restoration, with 192.2 million hectares, followed by Africa with 36.3 million hectares.
Europe accounts for 9.1 million hectares, North and Central America 5.8 million hectares, South America 5.4 million hectares and Oceania 3.2 million hectares.
The report cautions that these figures do not necessarily measure which regions are performing best. Differences reflect the scale of restoration activities, land area and countries' capacity to monitor and report progress.
China has the largest reported terrestrial restoration area, at 127.4 million hectares, while substantial restoration activities have also been documented in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
The report identifies financing as a major obstacle to achieving the global targets, estimating that annual investment in ecosystem restoration must increase more than fourfold, from US$64 billion to US$296 billion by 2030.
This would require governments, businesses and financial institutions to mobilise additional resources and support restoration activities beyond individual projects.
Agroforestry has the largest estimated annual investment requirement at US$87 billion, followed by restorative reforestation at US$52 billion, peatland restoration at US$44 billion and seagrass restoration at US$28 billion.
The report estimates that scaling up investment could generate up to 32 million additional jobs worldwide by 2030, building on the more than one million green jobs already associated with documented restoration initiatives.
It also highlights the environmental benefits of restoring priority areas, noting that research suggests 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.
Beyond funding, the assessment stresses that successful restoration requires long-term political commitment, community participation and stronger monitoring systems.
It says restoration efforts must respect the land rights, knowledge and leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, whose involvement is important in ensuring projects deliver lasting environmental and economic benefits.
The report also calls on governments to address the underlying causes of ecosystem degradation rather than focusing solely on repairing damaged environments.
It argues that restoration should move beyond isolated projects towards sustainable economies that protect existing natural resources while rebuilding degraded ecosystems.
The findings come midway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which runs from 2021 to 2030 and seeks to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation worldwide.
The report says the 2030 deadline should be treated as a milestone rather than the end of restoration efforts, as ecological recovery requires sustained action beyond individual funding cycles and political commitments.