UpbeatNature is coming back: 252 million hectares are now being restored across 149 countries
From salmon spawning grounds in Canada to coral reefs in Indonesia, people are putting damaged ecosystems back together — and the scale is now official. A UN Environment Programme report released at the COP17 biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia counts 252 million hectares of land and sea under restoration across 149 countries, an area about the size of Kazakhstan, in the largest effort of its kind ever documented. The work has already created more than one million green jobs. 'We are witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history,' said UNEP chief Inger Andersen. The report is honest about the gap: funding needs to rise from $64 billion to $296 billion a year to hit the goal of restoring one billion hectares by 2030.
SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program