UN report puts land under restoration at 252 million hectares across 149 countries

29 October 2026

A report titled Nature's comeback - scaling ecosystem restoration for people and planet was released on October 29, 2026 at the UN Biodiversity Conference. It is published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The report finds 252 million hectares under restoration across 149 countries, work that has already created more than a million green jobs. Terrestrial restoration has reached nearly half of the 2030 target of restoring 30 per cent of degraded land ecosystems. Freshwater restoration covers 11 million hectares in 62 countries and marine and coastal restoration 5.7 million hectares in 46 countries. China reports the largest terrestrial area under restoration, at 127.4 million hectares. The report says annual restoration finance must rise from 64 billion US dollars to 296 billion US dollars by 2030, an investment that could generate up to 32 million jobs.