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The Global Biodiversity Framework’s ecosystem restoration target requires more clarity and careful legal interpretation

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2024)Cite this article

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With the passage of the one-year anniversary of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), substantial effort is still needed to progress Target 2 — the ‘restoration target’. The restoration target guides parties 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, in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity”1. This target is a critical step towards upscaling global restoration, but almost every word of it provides scope for legal and ecological interpretation. This could result in markedly different on-the-ground outcomes for conservation once applied at a national level.

Although nebulous targets are a common by-product of the international negotiation process2, definitional uncertainty in the meaning of key terms can lead to markedly different models of implementation across different countries and make success difficult to assess and measure2,3. More fundamentally, it is crucial that the key elements of Target 2 are interpreted in the spirit of the GBF — that is, to achieve rapid, ambitious and large-scale restoration of global ecosystems, which is a critical goal given the ongoing deterioration of ecosystems globally.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Justine Bell-James & Rose Foster

  2. Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Justine Bell-James, Rose Foster, Nicole Shumway, Catherine E. Lovelock & Megan I. Saunders

  3. Centre for Policy Futures, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Rose Foster & Nicole Shumway

  4. School of the Environment, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Catherine E. Lovelock

  5. Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Jaramar Villarreal-Rosas

  6. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Taroona, Tasmania, Australia

    Christopher J. Brown

  7. Ocean Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, United States of America

    Dominic A. Andradi-Brown

  8. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Megan I. Saunders

  9. Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Nathan J. Waltham

  10. The Nature Conservancy, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

    James A. Fitzsimons

  11. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

    James A. Fitzsimons

  12. School of Law, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    James A. Fitzsimons

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  1. Justine Bell-James
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  2. Rose Foster
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Correspondence to Justine Bell-James.

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Bell-James, J., Foster, R., Shumway, N. et al. The Global Biodiversity Framework’s ecosystem restoration target requires more clarity and careful legal interpretation. Nat Ecol Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02389-6

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