Investigating the challenges and opportunities for scaling up ecosystem restoration

Land degradation – both a local and global issue

An estimated 12 million hectares of land are being degraded globally each year. Degraded lands cannot provide the ecosystem services important for human wellbeing, therefore constituting a welfare loss. Restoration of degraded ecosystems poses an opportunity to reverse the process of land degradation in efforts to re-establish the natural state (ecological restoration) and regain productivity (rehabilitation).

Furthermore, ecosystem restoration can provide local benefits, in terms of food security and enhanced smallholder resilience, regional benefits, such as improved water provision, and global benefits, including biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, making ESR a promising approach for reach some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, ESR is increasingly the focus of discussion in the international community and national governments.

Financing and coordination issues are limiting the scaling up of investments in ecosystem restoration

However, while the number of restoration projects are on the rise, alongside national government pledges for restoration, a significant upscaling of efforts does not seem to be taking place. We argue that while financing issues appear to be an important bottleneck, lack of coordination also plays an important role. As ESR requires creating affinity between local and global levels, and aligning public and private interests, it is crucial that both these issues are addressed. We highlight these issues through exploring several case studies.