GBF-aligned NBSAPs fact sheet 2: Restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems
GBF-aligned NBSAPS to ensure just, sustainable futures for all life to thrive:
The role of African civil society
Target 2: Restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems FACTSHEET 2
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is committed to dismantling inequalities and resisting corporate industrial expansion in Africa’s food and agriculture systems.
PO Box 29170, Melville 2109, Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)11 486-1156
Researched and written by ACB research consultant Linzi Lewis
Editorial oversight and input by ACB executive director Mariam Mayet
Design and layout: Katerina Sonntagova, Moss and Sea Studio
Cover art: Dancing light by Jessica Hooft, https://www.jesshooft-art.com/
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The ACB gratefully acknowledges the financial support of several donors, though the views expressed may not necessarily reflect the views of our donors.
January 2026
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
KM-GBF/GBF Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
NBSAPs National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans
COP Conference of the Parties
IPBES Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
IPLCs Indigenous People and local communities
UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNHRC United Nations Human Rights Council
About this series
This series of fact sheets unpacks the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) goals, targets and other relevant sections to which National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are being revised and aligned in the intersection of agriculture and biodiversity, and how transformational change will be required at all levels of government and society.
It is important to note that the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) targets are interdependent and need concrete actions, policies, and programmes to meet national and global goals and priorities (FAO et al, 2024). In this fact sheet, the second in the series, we focus on Target 2: Restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems
Background: ecosystem degradation and restoration in Africa
Africa hosts extraordinary biodiversity, being home to significant and varying ecosystems, habitats, species, and genetic diversity. There are over 50,000 plant species and 1,100 mammal species, including almost 200 primate varieties, about 2,500 bird species, 1,000 amphibian species, and over 2,000 reptile species. It is also home to nine of the 36 biodiversity hotspots recognised globally that are partially or fully in Africa (AFD, 2024).
Yet, Africa is also one of the most degraded continents, with 23% of the surface – i.e., over 700 million hectares of land – already degraded, and another 3 million hectares being further degraded annually (Akinnifesi, 2018).
There has been a loss of
• 65% of arable land,
• 30% grazing land, and
• 20% of forests in Africa have already been lost.
It is estimated that up to 40% of the planet’s land is degraded (UNCCD, 2022). In response, in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)1 was established. In addition, other fora aimed to address ecosystem degradation, such as target 15 of the Aichi Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),2 as well as 2021-2030 being the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Target 2 of the KM-GBF builds on Aichi Target 15.3
Target 2 of the GBF aims to: Ensure that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration, to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity, and connectivity. Under the GBF’s monitoring framework, the headline indicator is the area under restoration, with additional components4 and complementary5 indicators.
Figure 1: Global priority areas for restoration (Source: Strassburg et al., 2020)
1 The international community under the UNCCD has pledged to restore one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030.
2 Aichi Target 15 was a goal set in 2010 for the period ending in 2020, which aimed to enhance ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks through conservation and restoration. The target specifically called for the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems to help combat climate change, mitigate desertification, and support adaptation.
3 By 2020, ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks have been enhanced, through conservation and restoration, including restoration of at least 15 per cent of degraded ecosystems, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to combating desertification
4 Extent of natural ecosystems by type; maintenance and restoration of connectivity of natural ecosystems.
5 Habitat distributional range; Index of Species Rarity Sites, High Biodiversity Areas, Large Mammal Landscapes, Intact Wilderness and Climate Stablisation Areas; increase in secondary natural forest cover; Annual Tropical Primary Tree Cover Loss; Forest Landscape Integrity Index; Global Ecosystem Restoration Index; free-flowing rivers; percentage of cropped landscapes with at least 1% natural land; Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience Index; priority retention of intact wilderness areas; Status of Key Biodiversity Areas; Biodiversity Habitat Index; Red List Index; Red List of Ecosystems.
Degraded land refers to land that has lost much of its integrity through processes caused by humans. Humans have transformed more than 70% of the Earth’s land area from its natural state, causing unparalleled environmental degradation and contributing significantly to climate change (UNCCD, 2022). Ecological restoration6 is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. Figure 1 illustrates the global restoration priority hotspots, with Africa showing extensive and severe degradation.
Restoration of ecosystems takes place across a continuum, and can be partial, nearly complete, or complete (i.e., full recovery) (see Figure 2). Approaches to restoration may be described as passive or active.7 In practice, few projects are truly passive, and almost all have some degree of human intervention (FAO et al., 2024).
As we move towards developing and implementing GBF-NBSAPs, to deliver on the GBF’s vision of “living in harmony with nature”, the restoration of degraded ecosystems is central. Restoration, therefore, requires avoiding, reducing, and reversing degradation to meet human needs and improve ecological functions (UNCCD, 2022).
The priority, therefore, is to avoid degradation by eliminating the drivers; reduce degradation through the adoption of sustainable land and water management practices in production landscapes; and reverse degradation through the passive or active restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem functions.
Figure 2: The restoration continuum (Source: FAO et al., 2024)
6 Ecosystem restoration is defined as “the process of halting and reversing degradation, resulting in improved ecosystem services and recovered biodiversity. Ecosystem restoration encompasses a wide continuum of practices, depending on local conditions and societal choice”, as defined by the UN Restoration Decade’s launching report (UNEP, 2021).
7 Passive restoration is used to indicate projects primarily utilising natural regeneration or recovery, and active restoration to indicate projects that, for example, reconstruct substrate conditions; utilise planting of trees or other vegetation; introduce or augment wildlife; modify vegetation through logging, thinning or grafting; or manipulate disturbance regimes such as fire and flooding.
Drivers of land degradation in Africa
According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem-services for Africa (2018), drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation include:
Direct human-induced drivers
Climate change
Land-use change and habitat
conversion
Over-harvesting
Poaching illegal wildlife trade
Pollution
Invasive alien species
Indirect drivers
Population growth
Urbanisation
Inappropriate economic policies & technologies
Socio-political and cultural pressures
In particular, unregulated land use and land cover change – converting forests, rangelands, and other natural areas such as wetlands for food production, urban development, and infrastructure – is leading to widespread land, freshwater, ocean, and coastal degradation. Yet, this fails to fully articulate the underlying structural context, driving these indirect and direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ecological harm (See figure 3). These underlying causes create and perpetuate unequal relationships between Africa and the rest of the world.
Figure 3: Underlying causes, indirect drivers, and direct drivers of biodiversity loss and nature’s decline
(Source: IPBES, 2024)
Agricultural and food systems
Restoration cannot take place without ensuring that food systems transformation is on the agenda. Globally, food systems are responsible for 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use, and are the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss (UNCCD, 2022:x). Agriculture is considered the single largest driver of above- and below-ground biodiversity loss across Africa, primarily through habitat conversion, fragmentation, and intensive input use.
Agricultural expansion and agribusiness in Africa are reshaping the continent’s landscapes, economies, and societies at a rapid pace. Of particular concern is the role of global agribusiness securing large tracts of land to grow cash crops for export, as well as national and regional policies to integrate smallholder farmers into global supply chains through a green revolution agenda, deepening inequalities and hunger.
The expansion of a green revolution agenda by corporate agribusiness, focusing on large-scale high-input monocultures, therefore, drives unsustainable agricultural practices, displaces local farmers and diversified farming practices, and ultimately carves the continent along particular commodity crops, reminiscent of colonisation (ACB, 2025). With the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), aiming to redirect commodity value chains for intra-continental trade, a just transition of African agricultural and food systems is required to redress and restore the socio-ecological landscape and roll back inherently inequitable trade regimes that are in place.
At a local level, agroecological and regenerative agricultural practices must be part of restoration activities to transition away from large-scale, export-oriented, commercial farms. Through a just transition lens, this must be designed and implemented alongside local communities to ensure the needs of smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and fisherfolk are met, while being responsive to gender dynamics, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), youth, and displaced peoples, which is crucially important in Africa, as a result of persistent conflicts.
Current state of National Targets and NBSAPs regarding
Target 2
As of November 2025, 137 countries have submitted at least one national target for Target 2 of the GBF, with a total of 414 national targets related to Target 2 globally. In Africa, 48 Parties have submitted at least one national target for Target 2 of the GBF, with a total of 140 targets for Target 2. Therefore, many national targets cut across the targets of the GBF.8
African civil society must scrutinise their country’s NBSAPs and national targets, to understand what the country has committed to, and how to support and/or reorient these objectives.
8 See https://ort.cbd.int/
Considerations
To date, most NBSAPs have focused on conservation measures, such as increasing national systems of protected and conserved areas; avoiding or minimising destruction or degradation of habitats by reducing drivers of degradation; and reducing pressures on threatened species (FAO, SCBD & SER, 2024:43). Current processes updating and revising the NBSAPs provide an opportunity to integrate restoration across the KM-GBF. Figure 4 illustrates how Target 2 interacts with other area-based targets and other targets across the GBF.
Restoration activities must be driven and directed by local realities, in line with Section C9 of the GBF, for long-term sustainability, understanding that these targets are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. Restoration activities must be oriented towards transformation and linking livelihoods, equity, and decolonisation needs, to ensure socio-ecological health.
Activities to avoid or reduce land degradation must ensure adequate participation and security of land tenure, resource rights, and environmental justice. Participation, inclusion, transparency, and accountability are crucial in such work and central to a human-rights-based approach required (UNHRC, 2021). In particular, a biocentric or biocultural restoration approach of IPLCs, which combines traditional knowledge and cultural practices along with strengthening governance systems and recognising their collective and customary rights to their lands and territories, is essential for the effective management and conservation of biodiversity (Nelson et al., 2024).10 These efforts also directly contribute to the success of targets 1, 2, 3, and 22.
9 Section C outlines considerations for the implementation of the KM-GBF includes: Contribution and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities; different value systems; whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach; national circumstances, priorities and capabilities, collective effort towards the targets; right to development; human rightsbased approach; gender; fulfilment of the three objectives of the Convention and its Protocols and their balanced implementation; consistency with international agreements or instruments; principles of the Rio Declaration; science and innovation; ecosystem approach; intergenerational equity; formal and informal education; access to financial resources; cooperation and synergies; biodiversity and health.
10 A biocentric logic means that rivers, lakes and forests have rights for existence that are not necessarily linked to their utilitarian value. Nature is combined with sacrality and considered as a living entity with societies inseparable from their environments. Articulated by Indigenous Peoples and the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit in 2018, biocentric restoration, is a holistic restorative approach based on the cosmogony of Indigenous Peoples, as well as their food and knowledge systems. It considers all living beings in the ecosystem, as well as their relations and interactions with both biotic and abiotic elements. This approach recognises the collective and customary rights of IPLCs and bases restoration on their collective work and involves communities and households in conservation and restoration activities.
Figure 4: Relationships between Target 2 and other KM-GBF Targets (Source: FAO, SCBD & SER, 2024)
Figure 5 shows some examples of approaches for different types of places, actions, and enablers, as outlined by the 2022 UNCCD Global Land Outlook. Land restoration activities require flexible, decentralised governance and decision-making to accommodate new knowledge and skillsets as well as the values, relationships, and engagement of multiple land users through integrated land use planning to ensure socio-ecological restoration.
Target 2, therefore, demands integrated, landscape-level restoration that simultaneously addresses the underlying drivers, secures local participation and land and community rights, and leverages sustainable finance mechanisms.
It is also vital and urgent that just, transformative changes take place in sectors that substantially contribute to biodiversity loss and ecological degradation, including agriculture and livestock, fisheries, forestry, infrastructure, mining, and fossil fuel sectors, to reach the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity (IPBES, 2024).
Creat e green and blue sp aces
Urban planning
Food production
Wetland restoration
Green belts/ corridors
Native landscaping
Living walls/roofs
Education/ cultural centers
Quality of life
Clean air/water
Flood/temperature control
Waste/water management
Parks/recreation
Urban-Rural Inter face
Sustainable territorial development
Integrated land use planning
Protect/restore watersheds
Peri-urban agriculture
Green/blue infrastructure
Manage linkages and supply chains
Regional/local
food security
Water availability
Reduced unplanned sprawl
Enhanced biodiversity
Regenerative food and commodit y production
Agroecology and regenerative practices Integrated soil and water management
Grazing/rangeland management
Agroforestry/ silvopasture
Rural livelihoods
Healthy soils/ landscapes
Reduced emissions
Water storage/ recharge
Enhanced biodiversity
Conser vation and restoration
Ecological restoration/rewilding
Assisted natural regeneration
Indigenous/community management
Sustainable use/harvesting
Wildlife corridors/buffer zones
Control of invasive species
Enhance ecological connectivity
Create networks of conservation areas
Human health and wellbeing
Nature’s contribution to people
(biodiversity, climate, ecosystem services)
Combating deser tification/land degradation and drought
Disaster risk reduction
Preserving heritage/cultural landscapes
Ecotourism/green jobs
Figure 5: Examples of approaches for different types of places, actions, and enablers (Source: UNCCD, 2022)
Conclusion
As we move towards finalising the NBSAPs ahead of COP17, to deliver on “living in harmony with nature”, central to this is the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Restoration activities must consider outcomes for both ecosystem and human well-being to be successful. There is huge potential for restoring African landscapes if done by building on and with local initiatives, and halting extractive and exploitative economic activities. In particular, this requires the curbing of export-oriented agricultural production, the commodification and extraction of African agriculture for global commodity value chains, and investment in agricultural and food systems that support African biodiversity, livelihoods, and ecosystems.
Using a just agroecological food systems transition as the entry point to restore the dignity and integrity of African societies and landscapes, we must therefore:
Phase out and ban the use of highly hazardous pesticides that degrade and damage soils and water systems
Develop biodiversity-based agroecological models that inter alia
Farm in a more ecologically sound, biodiversity-supporting way
Replace monoculture with polyculture farming practices
Utilise local varieties along with safe pest control methods (for people and planet)
Include diverse, indigenous crop production that incorporates local biodiversity
Rewild to allow rehabilitation to occur around production areas
Diversify farming practices, such as agroforestry, silvopasture, and regenerative grazing
Recognise the relationship between the farm and the broader landscape, utilising the farm as a site for assisting in natural restoration
Recognise the relationship between biodiversity on farm and beyond farm
Restrict and regulate agribusiness and green revolution models on the continent
Revise and reform national farmer support programmes towards agroecological production
Revise national and regional policies to support just agroecological and food systems
Advocate for the transformation of unequal trade regimes, which reinforce inequalities between Africa and the rest of the world
References
ACB, 2025. Trump, tariffs, and AGOA: where to for Africa’s food and agriculture systems? A discussion document. https://acbio.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Trump-tariffsand-AGOA-Where-to-for-Africas-food-and-agriculture-systems_fin.pdf
Agence Française de Development (AFD), 2024. The degradation of ecosystems in Africa. https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/degradation-ecosystems-africa
Akinnifesi, F.K., 2018. Africa’s forest landscape restoration gathers momentum. Creating a forest landscape restoration movement in Africa. Nature & Faune, 32 (1), FAO. https:// books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZV1mDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=Akinnifesi+FK+(2018)+Africa%E2%80%99s+forest+landscape+restoration+gathers+momentum.+Nature+and+Faune+32:+3%E2%80%9310&ots=WxLoUdj0l_&sig=qovBYOWEEo3msSt1ntRqUqj8BUI#v=onepage&q&f=false
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (The), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Society for Ecological Restoration (FAO, SCBD & SER), 2024. Delivering restoration outcomes for biodiversity and human well-being – Resource guide to Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Rome, Montreal, Canada and Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd2925en
IPBES, 2024. Thematic Assessment Report on the Underlying Causes of Biodiversity Loss and the Determinants of Transformative Change and Options for Achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. O’Brien, K., Garibaldi, L., and Agrawal, A. (eds). IPBES Secretariat, Bonn, Germany. DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.11382215
IPBES, 2018. Summary for policymakers of the regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. K. Heubach, A. Mensah, L. Pereira and N. Sitas (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany.
Nelson, C.R., Hallett, J.G., Romero Montoya, A.E., et al., 2024. Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration – A contribution to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030. Rome, FAO, Washington, DC, SER & Gland, Switzerland, IUCN CEM.
Nelson, C.R., Hallett, J.G., Romero Montoya, A.E., et al., 2024. Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration – A contribution to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. Rome, FAO, Washington, DC, SER & Gland, Switzerland, IUCN CEM. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc9106en
Strassburg, B.B., Iribarrem, A., Beyer, H.L., et al., 2020. Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration. Nature, 586(7831), pp.724-729. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9
UNCCD, 2022. Global Land Outlook Second Edition: Land Restoration for Recovery and Resilience. https://www.unccd.int/sites/default/files/2022-04/UNCCD_GLO2_low-res_2.pdf
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2021. Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate. Nairobi. https://wedocs.unep.org/ rest/api/core/bitstreams/46a4fa7c-9e80-4ac8-a8dc-9eec85095bf9/content
United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), 2021. Human rights and the environment. A/HRC/46/7. Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 23 March 2021. https:// undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/46/7
