Scaling up land restoration is the path to achieving SDGs

28 August 2018
Story

Nairobi, Kenya – Showcasing the success of large-scale restoration of landscapes burdened by natural or man-made disasters, the Global Partnership for Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) today launched the report "Restoring forests and landscapes, the key to sustainable future." The report, released ahead of the Global Landscapes Forum in Nairobi, presents the results of long-term and large-scale research and outlines several case studies in forest and landscape restoration, highlighting a variety of time-proven opportunities to bring unfertile land back to life.

Securing enough healthy and fertile landscapes is key to address land degradation, drought and the steadily increasing number of migrants driven from their homes by land food insecurity or conflict over natural resources, but with 40 per cent of global land cover already allocated for agricultural purposes, room for expansion is limited. Nations around the world recognize the economic benefits that investing in restoration brings, and while the threats posed by degradation are daunting, our growing understanding of how natural systems work present enormous opportunities for positive change.

As of 2018, 47 countries, including India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Peru have already committed to bringing more than 160 million hectares – the size of the Indian subcontinent – into restoration by signing on to the world’s largest restoration initiative – the Bonn Challenge.

Boosting the momentum generated by the Bonn challenge and ultimately aiming to restore more than two billion hectares of degraded land worldwide, the government of El Salvador, supported by UN Environment, proposed to declare the next ten years "A Decade for Ecosystem Restoration" to promote the rehabilitation of degraded, damaged and destroyed lands.