What is ecological restoration?

The analysis by the United Nations Environment Program and Food and
Agriculture Organization says governments worldwide need to restore about 2.4
billion acres of land by 2030. It also recommends a similar
commitment for marine and coastal areas.

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The UNEP (United Nations Environment Program and Food and Agriculture Organization )and FAO issued the report as part
of its launch Thursday of what they called the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
2021-2030. “The
world’s ecosystems — from oceans to forests to farmlands — are being
degraded, in many cases at an accelerating rate,” it states.

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“People
living in poverty, women, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups
bear the brunt of this damage, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened
existing inequalities.”

What is ecological restoration? 

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
Ecosystems are dynamic communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms
interacting with their physical environment as functional units.

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This ensures
that the risks to the environment and also to human beings are reduced.
Environmental restoration is also termed ecological restoration or
environmental remediation.

Damage to ecosystems
can include fires, prolonged flooding or drought, increased salinity in bodies
of water, invasive plants or wildlife, soil erosion, improper discharge of
pollutants from human activity, and more.

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 Environmental restoration projects focus on
recovering an ecosystem to the point where it contains sufficient biological
and physical resources needed to maintain its condition and deal with regular
environmental stress (such as heavy rainfall or storms) without further human
assistance.

If an ecosystem is damaged by
pollutants from human activity, such as industrial activities, environmental
restoration projects focus primarily on removing the pollution.