Towards this end, 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 principles are broadly based on the Ecosystem Approach and the Short-Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration (STAPER), both adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Principles for Nature-Based Solutions,Principles for Ecosystem-Based Approaches, Principles for a Landscape Approach, Principles for Forest and Landscape
Restoration,the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)’s International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration, the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM)´s Rewilding Principles, and FAO´s Principles and Approaches for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, Agroecology, Sustainable Land Management and the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries.
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. As an overarching guideline, it is important to note that while ecosystem restoration and other nature based solutions are essential for, inter alia, climate change mitigation, biodiversity protection and land degradation neutrality, restoration is not a substitute solution for conservation, nor for a rapid and deep decarbonization of the world’s economy. As such,
investments in restoration in the context of climate action must be based on sound science-based targets and a clear pathway towards net zero emissions.
Ecosystem restoration and the sound stewardship of nature can only be successful, in the long term, in the context of a wider socio-economic transition towards a nature-positive economy, by decoupling economic growth from unsustainable use of natural resources, and detoxifying and decarbonizing economic activity.