Ecosystem restoration can play a critical role in helping societies address a range of climate hazards, such as intense precipitation, drought, heat and coastal hazards. Healthy ecosystems typically play a buffering role, mediating and moderating such hazards. But if ecosystems are degraded their capacity to play this role is reduced, sometimes severely. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration was launched in 2021 and one of its main goals is to increase our understanding of the multiple benefits of ecosystem restoration. This Briefing Paper focuses on the contribution of restoration to climate adaptation.
This Briefing paper provides seven lessons on using ecosystem restoration for climate change adaptation
- Ecosystem restoration is important for building resilience to climate change
- Restoration must be sustainable
- Restoration is part of the solution
- Restoration can often deliver other benefits
- Sometimes, compromises have to be made
- Equity considerations are central
- Tracking delivery is important but challenging
