Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world

Abstract

The world population exceeded eight billion in 2022 and will continue to grow rapidly in the coming decades. To support the survival and well-being of this large and growing population, numerous natural resources have been overexploited, and a large amount of waste has been generated, inducing forms of ecosystem degradation, such as biodiversity loss, productivity decline, and environmental pollution, which undermine the capacity of sustainable development for socioecological systems at multiple scales. As a countermeasure for this problem, a land-degradation-neutral world by 2030 has been established as a critical component of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, Sustainable Development Goals have been found to have limited transformative political impacts and are insufficient to prevent global environmental destruction.1Biermann F. Hickmann T. Sénit C.A. et al.Scientific evidence on the political impact of the sustainable development goals.Nat. Sustain. 2022; 5: 795-800Crossref Scopus (19) Google Scholar Thus, the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration highlighted the objectives and concrete actions needed to move beyond a defensive focus on biodiversity toward a proactive agenda of restoring ecosystems to improve various ecosystem services in all biome types of the biosphere (Figure 1). Recently, 10 pioneering initiatives that together aim to restore more than 68 million hectares of degraded land and coastlines have been recognized by the United Nations for their roles in reversing the degradation of natural habitats around the planet. Nevertheless, identifying priority areas, developing suitable technologies, adopting best practices and policies, and assessing the ecological, climatic, and social benefits and costs are still some of the significant challenges for scaling up global restoration efforts. Ecosystem restoration is expected to provide solutions to biodiversity loss, global warming, and many other challenges, and the concept covers multidimensional sustainability goals from restoring species and ecosystem functions to improving human well-being. Conservation approaches and technologies, playing key roles in ecosystem restoration, are diverse and specific to certain kinds of ecosystems, disturbance regimes, environmental conditions, scales, and purposes. Reforestation, vegetation reestablishment, invasive species removal, wetlands rewetting, grazing exclusion, direct seeding, soil remediation, and bioengineering have been carried out in different regions across the world. In recent years, a series of novel approaches, such as tertiary succession, framework species, and rewilding, were proposed to highlight the implementation of different interventions at opportune moments in areas of different degrees of degradation. As an emerging approach, microbial technology is widely considered to be the core of new restoration technologies because it can reconstruct the interactions among organisms at multiple scales and biogeochemical cycling and has wide application potential in various ecosystems.2Coban O. De Deyn G.B. van der Ploeg M. Soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands.Science. 2022; 375: abe0725Crossref PubMed Scopus (48) Google Scholar Ex situ seed banks and species banks are also highlighted in terms of providing an opportunity for future protection and restoration. Using paleontology to reconstruct the reference systems and integrating genomics and conservation physiology into planning, monitoring, and evaluation are important advancements that combine modeling and observations in evaluating long-term restoration and setting future possible scenarios. Therefore, the development of novel restoration approaches has shifted from restoring sole elements with short-term benefits to rebuilding links among animals, plants, and microorganisms and enhancing ecosystem resilience with high cost effectiveness. Driven by several ambitious restoration initiatives and novel approaches, the theory and practice of ecosystem restoration have made great progress in recent years.2Coban O. De Deyn G.B. van der Ploeg M. Soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands.Science. 2022; 375: abe0725Crossref PubMed Scopus (48) Google Scholar,3Strassburg B.B.N. Iribarrem A. Beyer H.L. et al.Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration.Nature. 2020; 586: 724-729Crossref PubMed Scopus (264) Google Scholar Identifying the global priority areas for ecosystem restoration and the planet’s critical natural assets has not only offered useful insights for research and policy but has also provided the basis for the implementation of numerous restoration activities at different scales.3Strassburg B.B.N. Iribarrem A. Beyer H.L. et al.Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration.Nature. 2020; 586: 724-729Crossref PubMed Scopus (264) Google Scholar While most previous restoration studies have focused mainly on specific environmental problems, such as soil erosion and desertification, recent investigations have tended to assess the overall improvements in ecosystem functions and services through restoration measures. Ecosystem stability and resilience, which are imperative for maintaining ecosystem health and sustainability, have increasingly become key indicators used to evaluate the efficiency and success of restoration efforts. For instance, increasing evidence has indicated that restoration measures can enhance ecosystem resistance and resilience while significantly increasing biodiversity. However, common restoration practices that favor easily grown species with high survival rates have been found to contribute to, rather than counteract, biotic homogenization at the species, functional, and phylogenetic levels. Therefore, overcoming biotic homogenization during ecosystem restoration is critical to maintaining ecosystem functions and achieving most of the benefits at a regional scale. In addition, although afforestation is still one of the most commonly used restoration measures, ecosystem restoration refers to more than afforestation or forest restoration. Many non-forest ecosystems also provide great restoration potential for maintaining and improving ecosystem functions and services. As a result, studies focusing on restoration in dryland, mangrove, marine, and even deep-sea ecosystems have gradually increased in recent years.2Coban O. De Deyn G.B. van der Ploeg M. Soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands.Science. 2022; 375: abe0725Crossref PubMed Scopus (48) Google Scholar,3Strassburg B.B.N. Iribarrem A. Beyer H.L. et al.Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration.Nature. 2020; 586: 724-729Crossref PubMed Scopus (264) Google Scholar Furthermore, in realizing the competing goals of ecosystem restoration, it is necessary to consider the limiting factors of various resources, such as water resources for revegetation in water-limited regions. In addition to restoring ecosystem functions and services, ecosystem restoration is also regarded as an important strategy to mitigate climate change because such activities can benefit carbon sequestration. Recently, several efforts to describe and quantify the potential contribution of ecosystem restoration to climate change mitigation have gained significant traction in climate policy discourse. For example, Strassburg et al.3Strassburg B.B.N. Iribarrem A. Beyer H.L. et al.Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration.Nature. 2020; 586: 724-729Crossref PubMed Scopus (264) Google Scholar indicated that 30% of the total CO2 increase in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution could be sequestered by restoring 15% of converted lands at optimal locations. However, since the realization of the proposed restoration for biodiversity and carbon sequestration would have severe feasibility constraints, we are confronted with the risks of overstating the climate benefits induced by ecosystem restoration, which may undermine mitigation efforts and distract from the core task of reducing carbon emissions from energy and industry sectors.4Doelman J.C. Stehfest E. The risks of overstating the climate benefits of ecosystem restoration.Nature. 2022; 609: E1-E3Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar Although ecosystem services are often omitted from climate policy due to the difficulties in estimating the economic value of climate-driven ecosystem changes, recent advances in data and methods have integrated ecosystem service values into a more comprehensive accounting of climate policies. Moreover, natural climate solutions also make an important contribution through additional carbon sequestration, reduced greenhouse gas emissions from ecosystems, and multilevel governance strategies, which consider the spatial heterogeneity and biophysical and economic constraints on natural climate solutions for realizing the cobenefits of ecosystem restoration and climate mitigation. Beyond the impacts of ecosystem restoration on the natural environment, the interactions between ecosystem restoration and socioeconomic development are more complex. Traditional economic growth is usually accompanied by the cost of resource consumption and environmental pollution, and how to promote economic growth equitably while protecting the environment is a critical challenge to realizing sustainable development.5Elias M. Kandel M. Mansourian S. et al.Ten people-centered rules for socially sustainable ecosystem restoration.Restor. Ecol. 2022; 30: e13574Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar According to this, whether ecosystem restoration can facilitate sustainable development requires an appropriate balance of ecological and social benefits and costs, especially in the context of climate change (Figure 1). Some have proposed that ecosystem restoration projects can be undertaken through ecological compensations or payments for ecosystem services, but this requires clarity on a number of important issues, including who restores and for whom, who bears the costs, who are the beneficiaries, and how to balance short-term and long-term social and ecological benefits. Faced with these challenges, encouraging bottom-up public participation might be a vital approach to promote ecosystem restoration since local communities and enterprises and the indigenous knowledge they possess have a deeper understanding of ways to achieve a win–win situation for both ecological conservation and economic development. Hence, considering and coordinating the views of multiple stakeholders is imperative to addressing the above complex issues during ecosystem restoration. Although there are still large gaps and challenges in linking ecosystem restoration and sustainable development, several research directions are recommended for future studies (Figure 1). First, more long-term policies and efforts that influence the viability, implementation, and ultimate success of restoration activities should be designed to support the existing restoration initiatives. Governments will need to align ecosystem restoration efforts with more national and regional planning, including determined contributions and actions, and provide additional commitments and financial support. Additionally, since the long-term restoration trajectories in almost all ecosystems are uncertain, the development of long-term monitoring frameworks and adaptive management is important for the success of ecosystem restoration. Second, advancing and applying novel technologies and approaches are the fundamental determinants for ecosystem restoration, particularly in harsh situations such as mining areas, drylands, alpine regions, and polluted environments. In inaccessible and remote areas, drone technologies, for example, could provide opportunities for assisted regeneration via aerial seeding while also monitoring the recovery of vegetation variables on a patch level. Third, studies on the social dimensions, such as public awareness and responsibility, of ecosystem restoration are still scarce. Shifting restoration practices from being ecologically centered to a synergy across multiple dimensions is critical for sustainable ecosystem restoration.5Elias M. Kandel M. Mansourian S. et al.Ten people-centered rules for socially sustainable ecosystem restoration.Restor. Ecol. 2022; 30: e13574Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar Fourth, standard protocols for fully assessing the benefits, costs, and risks of ecosystem restoration should be developed. Moreover, restoration activities should promote various benefits that are equitably delivered to different stakeholders while ensuring that risks are mitigated and costs are impartially shared.5Elias M. Kandel M. Mansourian S. et al.Ten people-centered rules for socially sustainable ecosystem restoration.Restor. Ecol. 2022; 30: e13574Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar Finally, as ecosystem restoration requires an interdisciplinary approach to achieve multiple goals, collaboration among experts in ecology, socioeconomic science, management science and engineering is essential for successfully implementing restoration on the ground. Therefore, exploring restoration efforts from a systematic perspective that seeks the best way to adapt ecosystem restoration for sustainable development is currently the most promising paradigm in a changing world. This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (2022YFF1303204) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42041005). The authors declare no competing interests.