Principles for ecosystem restoration to guide the United Nations Decade 2021–2030

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) aims to reverse ecosystem degradation to benefit biodiversity, climate, and human well-being. It presents ten guiding principles to support effective restoration efforts across all sectors, regions, and ecosystems. The UN Decade partners engaged in a multi-stage process to develop principles for ecosystem restoration. The process began with a synthesis of published principles for distinct types of restorative activities. The synthesis was then used during an expert consultation process, to identify priority themes and to inform an initial, draft set of principles. These were widely shared through an online global consultation process; feedback from the consultation informed the development of the final principles presented here. The ten principles for ecosystem restoration include a first principle that orients restoration in the context of the UN Decade, followed by nine best-practice principles. These best-practice principles detail the essential tenets of ecosystem restoration that should be followed to maximize net gain for native biodiversity, ecosystem health and integrity, and human health and well-being, across all biomes, sectors and regions. The principles are complementary and should, therefore, be read and considered altogether. Regardless of the type of land ownership and the types of stakeholders engaged, these principles can improve restoration outcomes for all types of projects, programmes and initiatives.