Regenerating the future: The business case for restoring land

Land degradation is one of the most pervasive yet overlooked threats facing our planet. It undermines food and water security, drives biodiversity loss and leaves communities more vulnerable to climate impacts. But the solutions are already within reach — and they are gaining momentum.

At COP30 in Belem, Brazil, leaders from government, business, science and civil society came together to move from discussion to delivery. In a high-level session titled “Land Restoration for Climate — Private Sector Progress and Solutions,” the UNCCD COP16 Presidency, working alongside the Action Agenda for Regenerative Landscapes, brought forward voices and solutions that show how ambition is beginning to translate into action, with a strong emphasis on collaboration at scale.

At the center of this effort is the Riyadh Action Agenda, a global platform launched at COP16 in Riyadh in December 2024. The RAA is mobilizing coordinated action between states and non-state actors to restore degraded land and strengthen drought and water resilience.

Since its inception, it has grown from 40 to over 100 supporting initiatives across regions and sectors, committed to reversing degradation and building resilience on the ground. Under these supporting initiatives, around $19 billion in private sector investment has already been mobilized for regenerative landscapes, a strong proof point that investors and companies see land not only as a risk, but as an opportunity.

Three goals, one regenerative vision

The RAA is underpinned by three overarching targets that amplify global climate and nature commitments.

First, restore and conserve 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030, including 250 million hectares of agricultural land.

Second, boost drought and water resilience, aiming to protect 30 percent of lands and inland waters.

And third, mobilize $2.1 trillion in investments, drawing from public, private, and blended sources.

These goals are not aspirational dreams; they reflect both the science and the economics of land restoration. According to the UNCCD, land restoration offers strong financial returns: up to 4x ROI per dollar invested and up to 20 percent IRR over 5-10 years. 

This could unlock $1.8 trillion per year in economic value, via productivity gains, reduced losses, and ecosystem service benefits. By contrast, the Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that the global cost of failing to shift toward more sustainable, regenerative agricultural systems could reach up to $10 trillion per year, close to 10 percent of global GDP.

In Belem, one of the strongest signals came from the business community. Nearly one in five of the RAA’s supporting initiatives — representing more than 300 companies — are driven by private sector actors in agriculture, food and fiber, finance, insurance and technology. This marks a turning point: land is being recognized not only as an environmental responsibility, but as a core pillar of long-term value creation, risk management and competitiveness.

To help organize and amplify this momentum, the Business for Land initiative is engaging companies that are committed to regenerative and nature-positive business models. 

B4L provides a space to connect corporate ambition with practical tools, guidance and peer learning, including through collaboration with platforms and initiatives such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and others working on corporate targets, value-chain transformation and land-positive finance.

Together, these efforts are helping companies develop pathways for performance across four key areas: regenerative agriculture that rebuilds soil health and stores carbon; business models that embed nature-positive practices in supply chains; innovative financing solutions, from blended structures to insurance-based resilience tools; and the use of data, digital technologies and monitoring to guide and track land outcomes.

Importantly, these models are already in motion. From carbon-linked agroforestry in Latin America to drought-resilient insurance solutions in Africa, companies are showing that restoring land can align with profitability, risk management, and long-term value creation.

The momentum for land restoration is not new — it builds on efforts such as the Bonn Challenge, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and national land degradation neutrality targets — but it is accelerating. What the RAA offers is a coherent platform to consolidate, scale and connect these efforts so they add up to more than the sum of their parts.

It also fits within a broader shift toward greater synergy between the Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification.

At COP30, the UNCCD COP16 Presidency actively contributed to discussions on aligning climate, nature and land agendas — including through events focused on synergies — underlining a simple reality: we cannot tackle climate change without protecting and restoring land and ecosystems, and we cannot secure nature without addressing the drivers of land degradation.

The RAA provides a concrete way for real-economy actors to operate within this integrated vision.

Next year, at UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, the world will undertake the first Global Stocktake on Land — a pivotal moment to assess progress, identify gaps and course-correct. 

The RAA is well placed to inform that process by showcasing how cooperative action across governments, businesses, financial institutions, communities and civil society can deliver results on the ground.

To get there, every stakeholder has a role. Governments must establish clear policy signals, remove perverse incentives and support enabling environments for regenerative practices.

Financial institutions need to realign portfolios, develop de-risking instruments and channel capital into restoration at scale. Businesses must integrate land and water into core strategies, not only CSR programs, and set measurable targets for their supply chains.

Communities and indigenous peoples, as frontline stewards of land, must be partners and leaders, not afterthoughts. And civil society must continue to hold all of us to account for equity, transparency and inclusion.

The case is clear: regeneration is not a niche concept; it is a new economic paradigm. Healthy, functioning landscapes are the foundation of food security, water availability, climate stability, biodiversity recovery and dignified livelihoods. The challenge now is to turn this vision into a truly global movement.

The future is not fixed. It is being restored — hectare by hectare, project by project, partnership by partnership. If we succeed, land will no longer be seen as a depleted asset, but as a living system at the heart of climate and development solutions.

Now is the time to move from pilots to portfolios, from pledges to performance, and from degraded to regenerative landscapes. Let us invest in land, not just for what it once was, but for what it can become.

• Dr. Osama Ibrahim Faqeeha is deputy minister of environment of Saudi Arabia and adviser to the UNCCD COP16.