The United Nations has named three new World Restoration Flagships — in Brazil, the Sahel region and Saudi Arabia — for work that is rebuilding the productivity of landscapes hit by drought, desertification and climate change. Together the three have committed to restore almost 5 million hectares by 2030, an area close to 7 million football fields.

The awards are led jointly by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), and were presented at the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Mongolia.

"Restoring the world's degraded land must become our priority if we want to achieve global commitments on food security, land degradation neutrality, biodiversity, food diversity, and the climate crisis," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. "Every hectare restored is a step towards a more sustainable future." UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen added that the three initiatives "show that restoring ecosystems brings significant benefits for all — including food security, new jobs, and greater resilience for millions of people."

In Brazil, the Araticum Initiative is restoring the Cerrado, the world's most biodiverse tropical savannah, through natural regeneration, direct seeding and agroforestry with native species. More than 180 organisations, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, farmers, researchers and government institutions work across nine states. As of June 2026 over 27,000 hectares were under restoration and seed from more than 150 native plant species had been collected and used; the target is 2 million hectares by 2030.

Saudi Arabia's National Greening Program, led by the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification, aims to restore 2.5 million hectares and plant 215 million trees by 2030 across rangelands, forests, deserts, urban areas and coastal mangroves, generating up to 187,000 jobs. By June 2026 it had brought 1 million hectares under restoration and planted 159 million trees, using reforestation, natural regeneration, controlled grazing, reintroduction of native wildlife including Arabian oryx, gazelles and ibex, rainwater harvesting and treated wastewater.

The Sahel Integrated Resilience Initiative, led by the World Food Programme across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, ties land restoration directly to food systems. It had restored more than 335,000 hectares by June 2026 and aims for 470,000 by 2030, combining land rehabilitation, soil and water management, livelihood support and school feeding. More than 4 million people have benefited, including cross-border refugees from Sudan.

UNCCD Executive Secretary Dr Yasmine Fouad framed the wider shift: "Land degradation, drought and ecosystem loss are no longer just environmental concerns — they are fundamental challenges to food security, water security and economic stability."

Countries have already promised to restore 1 billion hectares under the Paris climate agreement, the Aichi biodiversity targets, Land Degradation Neutrality targets and the Bonn Challenge, but little is known about the progress or quality of that work. The Flagships, now numbering 27, are monitored through the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring.

Source: FAO Newsroom