Land restoration and sustainable land management projects have now been proposed for up to a billion hectares globally, responding to continuous land degradation processes. But, a lack of reliable cost estimates hinders implementation, which results in a high perceived risk of restoration investments. This study addresses this gap, using cost data from 243 restoration projects from multiple sources to estimate the cost ranges for different types of restoration more precisely. The analysis shows median restoration costs vary from 185 $US/ha to 3012 $US/ha depending on the restoration measure, implying current global land restoration commitment cost 0.04%–0.27% of annual global GDP to implement. Since the majority of these commitments are made by developing countries, international cost-sharing mechanisms, through climate or private finance, are required to move from goal setting to implementation.
In this paper, we used statistical analysis on validated cost data from 243 restoration projects worldwide from multiple sources to gain insights into the factors explaining the variation in implementation and maintenance costs across restoration type, location, and time. Thereby we are able to provide more precise cost estimates for different types of restoration on a global scale. In turn, these improved cost estimates are used to compute cost ranges of current global restoration commitments. We find that the expected costs of land restoration differ significantly between types of practices, ranging from 185 $US/ha (forest management) to 3012 $US/ha (silvopasture), and increase with country GDP. Based on this cost analysis, we estimate current land restoration pledges would cost 0.04%–0.27% of annual global GDP to implement over 10 years, with the heaviest burden falling on low-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.