Updated standards make the case for restoration: ‘We have to create uplift’
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Facebook Linkedin Threads Whatsapp Reddit Email Page link The Society for Ecological Restoration released the third edition of its global restoration standards on June 23, shifting the emphasis from doing no harm to actively driving ecological “uplift” and recovery in line with the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s goal of restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.A central feature is the refined “Five-star System,” complemented by the “Restorative Continuum,” tools that measure restoration progress both ecologically and socially.The standards make an explicit “business case” for restoration, framing it as a way to redirect environmentally harmful subsidies toward investments that benefit both biodiversity and economic livelihoods, giving companies and funders a trusted roadmap for action.Experts emphasized that integrating local and Indigenous ecological knowledge alongside science is essential to credible restoration, with one researcher calling for greater involvement from Global South practitioners in shaping future iterations of the standards.See All Key Ideas The Society for Ecological Restoration, a U.S.-based conservation organization, published an updated set of standards and principles for restoring ecosystems on June 23, the third edition of the volume since 2016. Back then, the idea was to develop a way of thinking about and carrying out restoration that avoided some of the damage caused by projects focused on a narrowly defined target, says lead author George Gann. For example, enhancing carbon storage in forests could lead to monoculture tree plantations instead of productive habitats for biodiversity-rich ecosystems.
The 2026 version of the manual also asserts do-no-harm principles and the importance of conserving native ecosystems, just as the first did in 2016. “But now we have to do more,” says Gann, international policy lead at the Society for Ecological Restoration. “We can’t just avoid collateral damage.
We have to actually create recovery. We have to create “uplift” for biodiversity. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, sets the goal of restoring 30% of all degraded ecosystems by 2030, and the United Nations has tagged 2021-2030 the “decade on restoration.” The standards and principles are specific, providing a set of tools for designing, implementing, and monitoring restoration work.
At the same time, they’re “generic,” the authors note, allowing their application across diverse ecosystems facing different pathways to restoration. “These standards don’t tell you how to restore grasslands or mangroves,” Gann says. “They’re not intended for that … you still have to have the local knowledge.
You still have to understand the ecosystem that you’re working in.” He says the standards are intended to be a living document, useful for a wide range of people involved in restoration. That group includes policymakers, civil society and business leaders, he adds. Central to this update is a refined version of what the authors call the “Five-star System.” The tool aims to help measure the progress of restoration efforts, ecologically — but also socially, in the ways that they benefit communities.
The authors are careful to clarify that the number of stars doesn’t equate to an evaluation of a project, nor will every project reach the five-star rating — that is, a point at which nearly all of the drivers of degradation are gone. Fully restoring a native ecosystem might not be possible in all situations. Kripal Singh, a professor and plant and soil ecologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais who was not involved in writing the standards, applauds the “improved focus” of the five-star system and the related frameworks in the updated version.
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