UNCCD’s Reports on Land Restoration

The most important set of new global data on restoration, which came out in 2023, were the UNCCD country reports. The data presented in a series of reports that the UNCCD secretariat presented in 2023 to the Committee for the Review of Implementation of the Convention (CRIC21). The following is the general status of the overall reporting based on these reports.

By 28 February 2023, 126 of the 196 Parties had submitted their national reports. Forty reports were from Africa, 31 from Asia, 23 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 9 (75 per cent) from Northern Mediterranean countries, 11 from Central and Eastern European countries and 12 (44 per cent) from Parties that do not belong to a regional implementation (See Figure 13).

Based on the reports, 1.52 billion hectares of land were reported degraded, which is 15.5 per cent of reported land. It also showed 1.2 billion people, which is 25 per cent of the reported population, were exposed to land degradation (See Figure 14).

The report shows that between 2015 and 2019, at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land were degraded every year, affecting food and water security globally. The loss, equivalent to twice the size of Greenland, is impacting the lives of 1.3 billion people, who are estimated to be directly exposed to land degradation.

The baseline sets the benchmark against which change in the extent of land degradation is compared in subsequent reporting periods. These changes are used to monitor Parties’ progress on avoiding, reducing and reversing degraded land in line with the principles of the Land Degradation Neutrality mitigation hierarchy (See Figure 15).

The reports from CRIC21 further indicate that:

• 1. Globally, the largest cumulative per cent change in any land cover class is in artificial surfaces (e.g. Urban and constructed areas), which grew 64.5 per cent between 2000–2019, representing an additional 73,600 square kilometres (km2). Conversion has mostly come from cropland and grassland.
• 2. Globally, tree-covered areas increased by 28,100 km2 between 2000–2010, but by 2019 had suffered a net decline of 157,000 km2 (1.3 per cent) below 2000 levels. Most of the transitions to and from tree-covered areas were with grassland and cropland. But conversion to grassland was the largest in both baseline and reporting periods at 245,900 km2 and 126,700 km2 converted, respectively.
• 3.Globally, by 2019 grassland saw a net loss of 760,300 km2 (4.2 per cent) below 2000 levels. Most grassland losses are transitions to tree-covered areas, cropland or other land
• 4.Globally, cropland has increased by 217,300 km2 (2.8 per cent of the 2000 cropland extent). Most of this gain is the result of transitions from grassland and treecovered areas.
• 5. Globally, wetlands saw a net loss of 31,200 km2 (3.8 per cent) by 2019. Most wetland losses in the baseline and reporting periods have been due to transitions from treecovered areas to grasslands and croplands.
• 6.Globally, 1,331,300 km2 (2.1 per cent) of the reported land area was degraded due to negative land cover changes in the baseline period, and an additional 748,800 km2 (1.2 per cent) has degraded in the reporting period.
• 7. Globally, 65.6 per cent of the reported static vegetated land area1 showed increasing or stable Land Productivity Dynamics (LPD) in the baseline period. However, 8.7 per cent of the reported static vegetated land area showed declining LPD, and a further 24.1 per cent was reported as stressed, representing almost 43.5 million km2 collectively.
• 8. Globally and in the baseline period, the largest declining productivity trajectories were reported for transitions from treecovered areas to grassland, which exhibited declining LPD across 55,810 km2, or 17.8 per cent of the reported net area change.

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

The United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/73/284 of 1 March 2019, which proclaims 2021–2030 the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UNDER), is to be implemented “within existing structures and available resources, with the aim of supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of successful ecosystem restoration.”

The resolution invites UNEP and FAO to lead the implementation of the decade, in collaboration with the secretariats of the Rio conventions (desertification, biodiversity and climate change), “other relevant multilateral environmental agreements and entities of the United Nations system, including by identifying and developing possible activities and programmes, within their mandates and existing resources, and through voluntary contributions, as appropriate.”

UNDER has been operational since 2021, with a secretariat based in both FAO and UNEP and a strategy developed in consultations with Member States and other stakeholders.

Over the past two years, it has developed into a partnership of all major international agencies and over 200 restoration actors ranging from the private sector to NGOs.

UNDER completed two significant actions in 2023:

• 1. It released the Action Plan for the Decade in April. The plan sets out the next steps to collectively work towards the goals and vision of UNDER. Moving from strategy to action, this plan aims to allow UN Decade partners to mobilise around key priority areas for restoration – the Restoration Challenges – and provide leadership.
• 2. There are twelve restoration challenges identified by the action plan, namely: Biodiversity, Business, Cities, Climate, Communities, Education, Finance, Food, Human-Nature Relationship, Marine and Freshwater, Land and Youth. One or more institutions are leading each of these challenges, and also have a coordinating role
• 3. The table below presents the restoration challenges and the key performance indicators that will be used to assess progress in each challenge.