Why restore ecosystems?

The world is facing major interlinked environmental crises – climate, biodiversity loss, desertification, water scarcity, and others – that affect our quality of life and economies. Ecological restoration has become a key strategy to address them.

Ecological restoration is the process and practice of helping to recover ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. An ecosystem can be considered restored when it has recovered its resilience, i.e., its ability to develop. The difficulty of restoring an ecosystem to its original state means this approach cannot be used to justify or offset deforestation or the conversion of native vegetation, but should rather complement strategies to preserve biodiversity. There are several possible restoration methodologies available, some of which offer economic returns, such as natural regeneration, direct seeding, planting seedlings, agroforestry systems (AFSs), and integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF). The choice of methodology depends on specific environmental, social, economic, and cultural features of the target area, as well as the objectives to be achieved.

“The difficulty of restoring an ecosystem to its original state means this approach cannot be used to justify or offset deforestation or the conversion of native vegetation, but should rather complement strategies to preserve biodiversity”.

Ecological restoration’s multiple benefits include water security, the protection of biodiversity, sequestration of greenhouse gases and increased agricultural yields – through, for example, the improvement of soil quality, natural pest control and pollination – with significant social, environmental, and economic impacts. Besides the importance of favorable environmental conditions for production, restoration has direct impacts on employment and income, through its own production and service chain, including the sustainable extraction of timber and non-timber products, seed collection, seedling and nursery production, the planting and monitoring of trees, and the employment of technical experts. Thus, as an alternative to the unsustainable extraction of forest resources that degrades ecosystems, these strategies can protect and restore the environment, while also providing socioeconomic benefits. This is the case of AFSs, which combine agricultural crops with trees, plants, and even animals, generating diversification and higher yields, as well as cultivating native tree species that can generate attractive financial returns.

“Ecological restoration’s multiple benefits include water security, the protection of biodiversity, sequestration of greenhouse gases and increased agricultural yields – through, for example, the improvement of soil quality, natural pest control and pollination – with significant social, environmental, and economic impacts”.

In this context, ecological restoration has been gaining space on development agendas and is now an important part of economic growth strategies combining social inclusion and environmental protection. National and international commitments established in recent years include the United Nations (UN) Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30) officially adopted as a strategy to mobilize, inspire, and support restoration actions worldwide. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, Brazil set a restoration goal of 12 million hectares by 2030.

To gain the scale it needs, restoration must have the support of science, technology and innovation to produce the knowledge that will guide decision making and the development of new cost-effective solutions, as well as integrated efforts by public authorities, the private sector and civil society in the promotion, development, engagement and implementation of public initiatives and policies for new mechanisms and financial incentives that value the benefits, reduce the costs and risks of implementation and reward the adoption of good practices.

Brazil faces great challenges if it is to restore the millions of degraded hectares that constitute its environmental liabilities, in Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) and Legal Reserves (RLs) alone: an estimated 19.4 million hectares. At the same time, it has a huge potential to lead the restoration agenda and seize opportunities for its robust forest economy, with the support of existing public policies in this direction, such as the Native Vegetation Protection Law (LPVN), which sets norms for the protection of native vegetation; the National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg), with strategies to strengthen and expand the restoration of native vegetation; and the Sector Plan for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change for the Consolidation of a Low-Carbon Economy in Agriculture (ABC Plan), which encourages the adoption of low carbon emission technologies for agriculture and livestock.

* Leonardo Leitão is an economist and restoration assistant at the Land Innovation Fund.