Global habitat restoration reaches unprecedented scale

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that 252 million hectares of land, marine, and freshwater habitats across 149 countries are currently undergoing active restoration.

This effort supports more than a million green jobs. While the scale of restoration is high, the UNEP says progress remains slow for specific types of ecosystems. Only 5% of dwindling freshwater ecosystems and 23% of degraded marine and coastal territories are being revived. Funding remains a hurdle for these environmental goals.

The UNEP states that annual investment needs to rise from $64 billion to $296 billion by 2030. To help address this, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced a record year of funding, providing $3.3 billion for climate adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries. In other regions, different nations are implementing specific environmental protections. Portugal is introducing laws to require data centres to use renewable energy and water-free cooling systems to protect local supplies.

In England, new rules now require nationally significant infrastructure projects to deliver a 10% biodiversity net gain. The UK government estimates these rules will prevent between 6,000 and 10,000 hectares of habitat loss every year.