Balancing the books of nature: Accounting for ecosystem condition following ecological restoration

Abstract

Abstract Ecological restoration is critical for recovering biodiversity, functionality, and resilience of degraded ecosystems. Global restoration targets have been set to ensure that 30% of all degraded ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030. Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) quantifies the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of ecosystems. As humanity faces pressing sustainability challenges and increasing environmental degradation, NCA can potentially assist public and private-sector decision-makers to catalogue effects of restoration interventions to drive investment, improvement to practice, and ultimately, to better protect the Earth's ecosystems. To test its suitability, we populated the leading global NCA framework with ecological data to quantify changes in ecosystem condition after restoration. We found that in principle, NCA is fit for purpose, however, requires methodological refinements and ecological expertise to capture restoration outcomes. These tweaks will facilitate adoption and standardisation of reporting as efforts ramp up to meet ambitious global restoration targets by 2030.