Target 15
Strategic Goal D: Target 15 – Ecosystem restoration and resilience 101
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TARGET ELEMENTS
1. Ecosystem resilience and carbon stocks enhanced 2. 15% of degraded ecosystems under restoration
Box 15.1. Examples of national experiences and progress
ɠ Brazil: The Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact is a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder movement to restore 15 million hectares of degraded and/or deforested lands by 2050. Through the Pact, one million hectares were also pledged as a contribution to the Bonn Challenge. It is estimated that 673,510–740,555 hectares of native forests were under recovery from 2011 to 2015 in the Atlantic Forest, and it is expected that a total of 1.35–1.48 million hectares will be under recovery by 2020. The success of the Pact has been attributed to efforts to engage and connect multiple stakeholders, the establishment of effective monitoring systems combining remote sensing and field data, and the promotion of a vision and strategies to inform public polices and actions. The Atlantic Forest Law, which among other things prohibits deforestation of secondary Atlantic forest, provided an important enabling environment.11
ɠ Nigeria: As part of the Great Green Wall Project, Nigeria has committed to restoring a 15 km wide shelter-belt across its nine northern states.12 The Great Green Wall Project is an initiative of the African Union that aims to grow an 8,000 km long forested area at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert as a means to prevent desertification and tackle poverty in the Sahel-Sahara region.13 Chad,14 Mauritania15 and Senegal16 also report in their national reports that they are taking actions in relation to this project.
ɠ Estonia: Alvar grasslands are semi-natural grasslands with thin lime-rich soil on a limestone bedrock. One third of all the alvar grasslands in Europe are situated in Estonia. Through the LIFE to Alvars project 2,500 hectares of alvar grasslands were restored. The restoration involved removing woody biomass and re-introducing grazing. Approximately 600 landowners in 25 project areas participated in the restoration activities and subsequent management.17
ɠ Poland: In order to increase water retention and slow runoff in mountain catchments, more than 3 500 ponds, retention reservoirs, wetlands, and floodplains were created. Further waterways and wetlands were restored as part of the project. These actions resulted in a reduction in the damage caused by flood waters, and greater protection from drought.18
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Status
RELEVANT SDG TARGET
173 million hectares under the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), as well as pledges under additional national schemes, including some of the contributions under the Rio Conventions referred to above. Of the restor-ation commitments made, only about one third (34%) comprise regeneration of natural forest, with 45% of the planned areas comprising planta-tions and 21% agroforestry.19 Collectively, the targets under the UNCCD would put 385 million hectares of land under restorative measures, ranging from conservation/protected areas to sustainable land management/agro-ecological practices and ecosystem rehabilitation/restoration;20 the extent of overlap of these commitments with those reported above has not been analysed.
The Bonn Challenge and the NYDF has a target to bring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. However, as of April 2019, only about 26.7 million hectares of the commitments under these initiatives had been implemented, representing about 2% of the 1200
million hectares of lands estimated to be suitable for such restoration. Moreover, of this, only 3.1 million hectares has been reported since 2011.21 Overall the information that is available suggests that resto-ration activities tend to be project-focused and that efforts for restoration need to be significantly scaled up if the 15% target is to be met. However, there is a large potential for natural regeneration, especially in humid tropical forest biomes. Data from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows that tropical secondary vegetation in the Amazon increased from 10 million hectares to more than 17 million hectares between 2004 and 2014, indicating that tropical regeneration was underway in nearly a quarter of the total area cleared in the Brazilian Amazon throughout its history.
The concept of ‘rewilding’ is receiving growing attention in some regions, as a means of restoring particular features and functions of ecosystems in response to local and national choices. The return of some aspects of ‘wildness’ is not always popular, for example carnivores that threaten livestock, disruption caused by natural fire and flood regimes,
Target 15.1 - By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands…
Target 15.3 - By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world
Target 14.2 By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
103 Strategic Goal D: Target 15 – Ecosystem restoration and resilience
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The colour bars show the percentage of Parties reporting a given level of progress towards their national targets. (Blue: exceeds target; Green: on track; Yellow: some progress; Red: no change;
Purple: moving away from target). The intensity of the colour indicates alignment of national targets with the Aichi Target (Darker colours indicate close alignment).
Assessment of progress towards national targets
or the disappearance of traditional managed landscapes with strong cultural associations. On the other hand, successful rewilding can bring a range of economic, social and health benefits associated with the return of key ecosystem services. A framework for promoting the benefits of rewilding through a participatory process has recently been proposed.22
In recent years there have been increased efforts restore river flows including through the removal of dams. Between 1950 and 2016, there have been 3,869 dam removals, about a third of which have occurred in the Americas. Over the last two decades the rate of dam removal has increased exponen-tially and these removals are now occurring across the world.23 However despite these efforts it is estimated that there are still 6374 large dams worldwide and an additional 3377 that are planned or proposed (see Aichi Target 5).24
In the past two decades, there has been a surge in projects to restore coastal ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, and coral and oyster reefs, many of them close to coastal megacities (Figure 15.1).25 These efforts have
delivered benefits such as improved water quality following oyster reef restoration, and also, as ‘Blue Carbon’ strategies, contribute to mitigate climate change and improve coastal protection.26 However, only a small proportion of such habitats have been restored. It is estimated that there are more than 800,000 hectares of mangroves which have potential for restoration.27
Of the Parties that have assessed progress towards their national targets, more than a third report that they are on track to reach (33%) or exceed (3%) them. Another 55% report progress towards their targets, while 9% report that they are making no progress towards the target. Only about a fifth of national targets are similar to (18%) or exceed (3%) the scope and level of ambition of the Aichi Target. The national targets tended to have a greater focus on the restoration element of the Aichi Target than on the elements focussing on ecosystem resiliency and carbon stocks. Only 6%
of reporting Parties have national targets of similar scope and ambition to Aichi Biodiversity Target 15 and are on track to meet them (see bar chart).
Figure 15.1. Cumulative reported marine restoration projects between 2000 and 2020. The number of oyster reef restoration projects is plotted against the right axis.28
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Cumulative number of projects (oyster reefs)
Cumulative number of projects
Mangrove Seagrass Kelp Coral Oyster reef
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2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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