Where to Restore Earth: Global Priorities for Ecosystem Recovery
Strategically identifying priority locations is essential for successful and cost-effective ecosystem restoration worldwide.
Where Should We Restore Earth’s Ecosystems?
As environmental crises intensify, the question of which places on Earth should be prioritized for ecosystem restoration is gaining urgency. Restoration—when thoughtfully targeted—can combat both biodiversity loss and climate change, but practical, effective action hinges on strategic decision-making. Recent scientific breakthroughs now provide a global roadmap, highlighting where efforts will yield the greatest impact for nature and people.
The Rising Importance of Global Ecosystem Restoration
The last century has seen vast tracts of natural ecosystems transformed by agriculture, development, and resource extraction. The result is widespread degradation that undermines the natural systems sustaining life and regulating climate.
- Over a third of the world’s land has been converted for farming, forestry, or settlement.
- Deforested, drained, and degraded lands drive habitat loss and threaten thousands of plant and animal species.
- Loss of healthy ecosystems releases carbon, exacerbating global warming and extreme weather.
Recognizing the urgent need for recovery, the United Nations declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, aiming to scale up restoration efforts globally. However, given the vast extent of altered land, restoring everything at once is unrealistic. We must therefore prioritize: Where will restoration achieve the most?
The Science of Restoration: Identifying Priority Areas
An international team of scientists, through advanced spatial analysis and modeling, has developed a comprehensive guide to the planet’s best restoration opportunities. Their findings, published in major scientific journals, present a pioneering approach that considers:
- Biodiversity Conservation – Which areas, if restored, would save the greatest number of threatened animal species?
- Climate Change Mitigation – Where would restoration sequester the most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
- Economic Costs – Which projects offer the best results for the least expenditure?
This approach uses an optimization model to rank all converted lands globally according to their potential benefits and costs, helping policymakers maximize the efficiency and impact of restoration programs.
Key Findings on Priority Landscapes
- Restoring 30% of former natural lands in high-priority locations could prevent over 70% of anticipated vertebrate extinctions, while sequestering nearly half of all atmospheric CO2 added since the Industrial Revolution.
- Restoring just 15% of priority lands could avert 60% of expected extinctions and sequester about 30% of the post-industrial CO2 increase.
- Strategic spatial planning improves cost effectiveness by more than tenfold compared to random restoration efforts.
The Value of Different Ecosystem Types
Much of the worldwide attention on restoration focuses on forests, but the analysis reveals that restoration across a diversity of ecosystems—including grasslands, wetlands, shrublands, and arid regions—is crucial. The relative importance of these biomes varies according to the desired outcomes:
- Forests provide the largest potential for climate change mitigation via carbon sequestration.
- Wetlands, though covering less area, are hotspots for biodiversity and also help buffer climate extremes.
- Grasslands and arid lands become priorities when restoration costs are a primary concern, as these can sometimes be less expensive to restore per hectare than forests.
What others are reading
The scientists’ analysis covered over 2.8 billion hectares of converted land:
| Ecosystem Type | Original Share of Converted Lands | Restoration Priority (per goal) |
|---|---|---|
| Forests | 54% | Highest for climate mitigation |
| Grasslands | 25% | Cost-effective; biodiversity support |
| Shrublands | 14% | Biodiversity-limited & cost-effective |
| Arid lands | 4% | Cost-effective |
| Wetlands | 2% | Highest for biodiversity, ecosystem services |
This diversity underscores the need to look beyond forests alone, adopting a landscape-wide approach to restoration planning.
How the Prioritization Model Works
The modeling underpinning this global restoration roadmap synthesizes multiple data layers:
- Habitat loss and restoration potential – Using satellite mapping and land-use data, researchers identify areas where nature has been converted and where restoration is feasible.
- Species range and extinction risk – Models assess the reduction in extinction risk for over 20,000 species and prioritize locations yielding the greatest reductions in “extinction debt.”
- Carbon capture capacity – By estimating potential biomass and soil carbon recovery, the effectiveness of restoring different lands for carbon removal is scored.
- Cost analysis – Economic models incorporate land value, restoration method, and local wage data to identify cost-effective sites.
This complex optimization allows for scenario building—identifying single or combined goals (like maximizing both biodiversity and climate outcomes, or adding cost-efficiency as a constraint) to tailor priorities to real-world constraints and policy objectives.
Synergies and Trade-offs: Multi-criteria Benefits
Restoration outcomes depend on the combination of goals:
- Biodiversity-Focused: Wetlands, forests, and biodiverse hotspots rank highest.
- Climate-Focused: Priority shifts to forests and some peatlands for maximum carbon storage.
- Cost-Focused: Grasslands, arid lands, and easily accessible regions jump to the top.
- Combined Approaches: Geographic hotspots emerge—areas where cost, biodiversity, and climate benefits overlap.
For example, some South American, African, and Southeast Asian regions align high biodiversity and carbon potential, offering the most “win-win” results.
Mapping Global Hotspots
The researchers produced global maps ranking converted lands from the top 5% (highest priority) to lowest priority based on each scenario. Notably, joint optimization (seeking synergies across goals) dramatically increases effectiveness and efficiency—enabling more impact per dollar spent.
Why Local Context Matters: Community and Cultural Factors
While this global approach delivers an overarching roadmap, the research stresses that restoring ecosystems must respect local social and ecological contexts. Land-use priorities, land tenure, indigenous knowledge, and stakeholder needs should always guide project implementation.
- Decisions made solely on global data may overlook on-the-ground realities, social justice, or conflicts over land use.
- Consultation with Indigenous Peoples and local communities is essential to ensure projects are equitable and sustainable.
- Restoration can also deliver local co-benefits—such as improved water quality, poverty reduction, and climate adaptation, which should factor into planning.
Ultimately, science-based global prioritization helps guide resources and attention, but successful restoration comes from combining these insights with grassroots action and local expertise.
Policy Impacts: Informing Global Restoration Targets
This pioneering work is already shaping policy:
- The methodology supports the Convention on Biological Diversity in defining post-2020 biodiversity targets.
- National governments use these tools to plan, monitor, and report on progress toward both nature and climate action goals.
- NGOs and private sector groups leverage priority maps to direct investment toward high-impact sites.
Challenges and Limitations
Despite its promise, prioritization faces several challenges:
- Data limitations: Gaps in quality or coverage of species distributions, carbon data, and restoration costs could affect precision.
- Implementation barriers: Land tenure, economic incentives, and competing land uses often constrain restoration on the ground.
- Socio-political dynamics: Effective restoration must align with local aspirations, governance, and just transitions for affected communities.
- Long-term success: Restoration is a decades-long process, requiring monitoring, management, and resilience to changing climates.
Ongoing research and data updates will further refine these models. Meanwhile, incentives, education, and policy alignment remain central to turning priority mapping into effective reality.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is “ecosystem restoration” and why does it matter?
A: Ecosystem restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of degraded, damaged, or destroyed natural environments. It is vital for reviving biodiversity, restoring ecosystem services like water purification and carbon storage, and strengthening resilience to climate change.
Q: How were global priority areas for ecosystem restoration identified?
A: Scientists combined satellite mapping, species extinction modeling, carbon accounting, and cost data to rank converted lands globally for their restoration benefits. Optimization algorithms then identified regions where restoration would yield the highest returns in biodiversity, climate, and cost-efficiency.
Q: Does global prioritization mean local needs are ignored?
A: No. Global prioritization provides a strategic overview, but successful restoration must be tailored to local ecological, cultural, and socio-economic contexts, using input from local communities, indigenous knowledge, and site-specific factors.
Q: Why should we look beyond forests in restoration planning?
A: While forests offer major climate benefits, many other ecosystems—like wetlands and grasslands—are critical for biodiversity, regional climate regulation, and other ecosystem services. A balanced restoration portfolio addresses all ecosystem types for optimal global benefits.
Q: What are the biggest challenges to implementing large-scale ecosystem restoration?
A: Key challenges include securing funding, land tenure issues, alignment with local priorities, ongoing monitoring, and resilience to future climate changes. Integrative approaches addressing both ecological and human dimensions are needed for true success.
Conclusion: The Road Ahead for Planetary Restoration
The science is clear: strategic, data-driven ecosystem restoration is among the best tools humanity has to tackle the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. By focusing on priority locations—guided by robust global analyses and adapted to local realities—restoration can deliver exceptional returns for people and the planet. The next decade will be decisive; the roadmap for action is now at hand, but success depends on global resolve, local wisdom, and cross-sector collaboration.
References
- https://www.ksfire.org/woody_encroachment/documents/Global%20priority%20areas%20of%20ecosytem%20restoration.pdf
- https://www.unep-wcmc.org/news/ecosystem-restoration-could-prevent-over-70-of-extinctions
- https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/who-decides-on-priorities-for-ecosystem-restoration/
- https://www.iis-rio.org/en/news/global-priority/
- https://www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org/news/global-priority-areas-for-ecosystem-restoration
- https://www.treehuggerpod.com/episodes/care-for-urban-trees-each-other
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