LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Global efforts to restore degraded land, sea and freshwater ecosystems by the end of the decade are having an impact but need to be scaled up rapidly, the UN said in a report on Thursday.
• Report says 252 million hectares across 149 countries are currently being restored, the largest global restoration effort to date, while the UN’s goal by 2030 is for 1 billion hectares of ecosystem restoration
• Asia accounts for 192.2 million hectares of the total, followed by Africa with 36.3 million hectares, Europe with 9.1 million hectares, North and Central America with 5.8 million hectares, South America with 5.4 million hectares and Oceania with 3.2 million hectares
• Restoring 15% of global priority areas could capture and store 30% of the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions generated since the industrial revolution and help avoid 60% of species extinctions
• To reach the 2030 goal, annual finance must more than quadruple from $64 billion to $296 billion by 2030
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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