Only a Quarter of Global Ecosystem Restoration Pledges Are on the Ground: What the New UN Report Says
A new United Nations report, Nature's Comeback: Scaling Ecosystem Restoration for People and Planet, was released on 29 October 2026. It is a mid-point check of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
Countries have promised to restore about 1 billion hectares of land and water. Only about 252 million hectares (about 25%) is actually documented as "under restoration". Countries need to roughly triple their effort to meet the 2030 goals.
Almost all restoration is happening on land: about 232 million hectares (92%). Freshwater areas (rivers, lakes, wetlands) cover only about 11 million hectares (4%), and marine and coastal areas only 5.7 million hectares (about 2%).
The report tracks progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which asks for at least 30% of degraded ecosystems to be under effective restoration by 2030. It used data from 149 countries.
China alone accounts for about 127.4 million hectares, which is about 54% of all land restoration documented worldwide. Asia as a whole reported about 185 million hectares.
The report warns that "under restoration" does not mean the ecosystem has recovered. Damage continues: more than 1.56 billion hectares of land (over 15% of the world's land) is degraded, and wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests.
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a ten-year global campaign, from 2021 to 2030, to stop the damage to nature and to repair damaged land, forests, rivers, wetlands and seas. The United Nations General Assembly declared it in 2019. It is led by two UN bodies: the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is not a treaty with legal duties. It is a "movement" that asks governments, companies, communities and citizens to restore nature at a very large scale.
The new UN report is the mid-point check of this Decade. It shows that only about 252 million of the 1 billion hectares promised is under restoration, and that rivers, wetlands and seas lag far behind land. With four years left, the report says countries must triple their efforts to meet the Decade's goals.
Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is the world's main plan to stop and reverse the loss of nature by 2030. It was adopted in December 2022 at the 15th meeting (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Montreal under China's presidency. It has 4 long-term goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. Countries report their progress against these targets through their national biodiversity plans.
The UN report measures the world's restoration progress against Target 2 of this framework. At the current pace, the 30% restoration goal for 2030 will be missed unless countries roughly triple their action.
Ramsar Convention and Wetland Protection
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty to protect wetlands and to use them wisely. It was signed in 1971 in the city of Ramsar in Iran, which is how it got its name. Its full name is the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. It is the oldest of the modern global treaties on the environment, and the only one that deals with one particular type of ecosystem: wetlands.
The UN report found that freshwater ecosystems, including wetlands, make up only about 4% of all restoration worldwide, even though they are being lost faster than forests. This puts the spotlight on the Ramsar Convention's promise of "wise use" and on how well countries actually manage their listed wetlands.
- Report: Nature's Comeback: Scaling Ecosystem Restoration for People and Planet (UN, 29 October 2026)
- Data from 149 countries, covering 12.1 billion hectares of land
- Pledged restoration: about 1 billion hectares; documented under restoration: about 252 million hectares (about 25%)
- Countries must roughly triple implementation to meet 2030 targets
- Terrestrial: about 232 million ha (92%); freshwater: about 11 million ha (4%) in 62 countries; marine and coastal: 5.7 million ha (about 2%)
- Marine and coastal restoration is about 23% of the 25 million ha needed under the GBF
- China: 127.4 million ha (about 54% of global documented land restoration); Asia: about 185 million ha; Africa: 33.7 million ha
- Indonesia: about 6 million ha of peatland restoration
- Degraded land worldwide: over 1.56 billion ha (more than 15% of global land)
- Freshwater ecosystems lost since 1970: about 384 million ha; wetlands vanishing 3 times faster than forests
- Deforestation slowed from 17.6 million ha a year (1990s) to 10.9 million ha a year (2015-2025)
- Ocean plastic: an estimated 75-199 million tonnes, affecting at least 267 species
- Global Freshwater Challenge aims to restore 350 million ha of wetlands and 300,000 km of rivers