Introduction

Abstract

This chapter presents the global context of ecosystem restoration and its relevance to socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS). It provides an overview of global trends and the status of land and sea degradation, highlighting their ramifications for multiple dimensions of human well-being and sustainability. It further outlines recent initiatives to promote and facilitate ecosystem restoration worldwide, pointing out gaps in knowledge and practices to further the restoration effort. Elaborating on landscape approaches that underpin the management of SEPLS, the chapter discusses how lessons learnt from local experiences in managing SEPLS can contribute to filling such gaps in preventing, halting, and reversing land and sea degradation and facilitating sustainable development. The final section of the chapter describes the scope, objectives, and organisation of the book, and shows an overview of all the case studies compiled within.

1.1 Global Call for Ecosystem Restoration

Ecosystems have been deteriorating worldwide at an alarming rate and consequently harming not only biodiversity but also human well-being. Land degradation resulting from anthropogenic activities has led to a decline in productivity on 23% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, whereas a significant amount of global crop yield has been threatened by pollinator loss (IPBES 2019). Overall, degradation of the land surface is undermining the well-being of the global population of 3.2 billion, inflicting an economic loss that amounts to more than 10% of the annual global gross product (IPBES 2018). Among the ecosystems that significantly suffer from land degradation (including forest and rangeland), wetlands have been most severely degraded; 87% of wetlands have been lost over the past three centuries, while 35%, where data are available, have been lost since 1970 (IPBES 2018, 2019; Ramsar Convention on Wetlands 2018).

Besides the extensive alteration in land use, a significant area of the sea has also been in decline. In 2014, about 66% of the ocean area was under increasingly adverse cumulative impacts, whereas the ocean free from human pressure accounted for merely 3% of the total (IPBES 2019). Together with coastal ecosystems, marine areas have been exposed to various pressures, such as growing agriculture and aquaculture, urban expansion, plastic pollution, and ocean acidity (UNEP 2010; Waltham and Sheaves 2015). This is epitomised by the fact that 37.8% of mangrove forest extent globally was impacted by human activities over the period 1996–2010 (Thomas et al. 2017). Decline in these ecosystems has negatively affected the vital ecosystem services, including coastal protection, fisheries production, blue carbon capture, and detoxification (Waltham and Sheaves 2015). In particular, reduced coastal protection has been amplifying climate-related risks (e.g. floods and hurricanes) to life and property for 100–300 million people living on coasts within 100-year flood zones (IPBES 2018).

In response, the United Nations (UN) declared 2021–2030 as the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”, adopting a resolution at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly held on March 1, 2019. This is a global call for action to support and massively scale up efforts to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. With the understanding that healthy ecosystems are indispensable to realise sustainable development, the declaration aims to facilitate global cooperation for ecosystem restoration in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and for contributions to enhancing livelihoods and tackling the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the strategy was developed between 2019 and 2020 based on wide consultations to guide the implementation of the Decade for inclusive, joint coordinated action (UNEP and FAO 2020). Since the official launch in June 2021, partnership and collaboration for the Decade implementation have been evolving, involving over 150 official partner organisations as well as thousands of people who participate in a science-based global movement called #GenerationRestoration (UNEP and FAO 2022). An Action Plan was also published in August 2022 to lay out the next steps for collective action in which all stakeholders are mobilised for cooperation, coordination, and synergies in achieving the goals and visions of the Decade (UNEP and FAO 2022).

In this context, ecosystem restoration is defined as “the process of halting and reversing degradation, resulting in improved ecosystem services, and recovered biodiversity” (UNEP 2021, p. 7). This includes a broad range of activities that serve to protect intact ecosystems and remedy degraded ones (e.g. assisting natural regeneration, increasing fish stocks in overfished areas, controlling invasive species, and green infrastructure) (UNEP and FAO 2022). Importantly, the benefits of ecosystem restoration in this framing are explicitly recognised with respect to not only ecosystem functions per se but also their contributions to people. This shows the shift from the classical conceptualisation of ecosystem restoration that used to primarily hinge on natural science, moving towards a dual conceptualisation involving more social dimensions (e.g. values people attach to nature) beyond science (Martin 2017). This is also expressed in the vision for the Decade: “a world where—for the health and well-being of all life on Earth and that of future generations—the relationship between humans and nature has been restored, where the area of healthy ecosystems is increasing, and where ecosystem loss, fragmentation and degradation has been ended” (UNEP and FAO 2022, p. 5). As such, ecosystem restoration is considered what we need for both people and nature.

Over 115 countries have already committed to restoring one billion hectares of degraded land—an area larger than that of the USA or China—by 2030 (Sewell et al. 2020; UNCCD 2022a). Additionally, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held in May 2022 decided to accelerate this commitment in the coming years towards 2030 (UNCCD 2022b). The scientific basis also suggests that one of the key actions towards 2030 to stabilise global warming well below 2 °C is to improve the land management (including avoiding loss and degradation) of about 2.5 billion hectares of forests, farms, wetlands, and grasslands, while restoring at least 230 million hectares of natural cover (Griscom et al. 2019).

Nevertheless, estimating what can be achieved in this Decade is a challenge, considering all the dimensions of ecosystem restoration—including the socio-economic, ecological, and cultural. Furthermore, despite our desire to better understand to what extent restoration efforts would be successful, evidence to properly guide policymakers and practitioners for sound restoration is scarce (Cooke et al. 2019). Lacking monitoring and evaluation in restoration projects would lead to lost opportunity, and in the end vast investments may end up with negligible outcomes (Cooke et al. 2019). It is often the case that projects without explicit objectives and accountability do not yield the expected success for restoration (Young and Schwartz 2019). Several related challenges are to precisely understand the baseline status, extent, and level of ecosystem degradation, define clear and realistic objectives for restoration, find out pathways to achieve them, and identify ways and means to implement restoration strategies (Abhilash 2021; Young and Schwartz 2019).

1.2 Relevance of Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes to Ecosystem Restoration

The concept of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) defines an ideal landscape approach that promotes sustainable use of natural resources in a manner that retains the mosaic nature of the landscape enabling well-functioning ecosystems. Landscape approaches, ¹ which are generally also applicable to seascapes, can broadly be described as activities that integrate developmental and conservation priorities at the scale of the landscape, involving a diverse range of stakeholders in an inclusive manner. Juxtaposing this with the goal of ecosystem restoration essentially implies focusing on preventing degradation by addressing various related triggers, mindful of diverse interests of multiple actors across and beyond the landscape or seascape. Hence, several landscapes and/or seascapes are subject to different degrees of degradation as a result of multiple factors, including land and sea use policies and regulations, introduction and spread of invasive alien species, adaptation to climate change-related challenges, preference of certain types of uses over others by certain actors, and demographic changes that affect cultural affinities and practices related to the area, among others. In this volume, we highlight efforts being undertaken on the ground to ensure a high level of social-ecological resilience in their own contexts—which means the activities being undertaken help in securing ecological functioning and a good quality of life for all stakeholders.

The case studies are based on the experiences of partners of the IPSI network who are committed to fostering integrated landscape approaches that enable securing multiple benefits derived through SEPLS management and encourage multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approaches to their management and governance. These case studies offer rich and practical evidence to help guide further restoration efforts, while advancing relevant knowledge (both from indigenous, traditional, and modern sources) and practices. The experiences in managing SEPLS demonstrate how different stakeholders (including underrepresented groups) identify problems, negotiate multiple value perspectives of nature (whether as something that provides for our well-being, or as deserving its own right to exist, or as part of a broader notion of the interconnectedness of people and nature defined through cultural beliefs and practices), and set out goals for concerted efforts in restoration. They also showcase what actions are taken for restoration on a landscape or seascape scale and whether and how the efforts meet the needs and interests of the stakeholders. Such interests include defining what types of benefits are sought from these efforts and how these benefits are equitably distributed among the various actors.

1.3 Objectives and Structure of the Book

This book seeks to highlight how the efforts in managing SEPLS can prevent, halt, and reverse land and sea degradation, contributing to ecosystem restoration and sustainable development. Through the practical experiences described in different case studies (Chaps. 2–13) and an analysis of key messages arising from them (Chap. 14), we seek to provide a span of issues and possible solutions (including challenges to addressing restoration, good practices, key success factors, innovative incentives, and lessons learnt) towards achieving ecosystem restoration goals from the perspective of local implementation.

• The case studies broadly address the following questions:

  • How and why has the restoration effort in their area been initiated or emerged through the management of SEPLS?

  • What multiple values of nature are expressed, and how are they negotiated and embraced by the stakeholders to define the objectives of the restoration efforts in managing SEPLS?

  • How effective is SEPLS management to prevent, halt, and reverse any degraded ecosystems and achieve restoration objectives? Has local and traditional knowledge and cultural diversity helped to inform or facilitate the restoration of degraded SEPLS? If so, how?

  • What methodologies and approaches have been used for restoration, and how can good practices be replicated? How can we measure, monitor, evaluate, and report the progress and outcomes of the restoration efforts in SEPLS management?

  • What are the challenges and opportunities in restoring ecosystems through managing SEPLS to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable development?

A summary overview of the case studies is given in Table 1.1, while the map indicates the locations of the case studies (Fig. 1.1).

Table 1.1 Overview of the case studies

Fig. 1.1

Locations of the case studies (regions, and landscapes and/or seascapes) (Map template: Geospatial Information, United Nations). Note: Details of the case study locations, including geographic coordinates, are described in each chapter