An international team has demonstrated the effectiveness of marine ecosystem restoration interventions. The publication has just appeared in the prestigious international journal: Nature Communications.
Over the last 100 years, Man has destroyed or damaged a large part of marine ecosystems. Italy is no exception, where more than 30% of seagrass meadows and coralligenous plants have been damaged by human impacts, while brown algae forests and oyster beds have lost up to 80% of their extension. The European Commission has strongly supported the law on the Restoration of Nature through which, in the coming months, it will lead all member countries to define the objectives and priorities for the restoration of ecosystems damaged by Man. In particular, the law will push EU member states to restore 20% of degraded marine habitats by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 90-100% by 2050. To create widespread consensus and develop a national plan for the restoration of marine ecosystems and at the same time incentivize investments in this direction, it is necessary to demonstrate that the interventions are successful and economically advantageous. In this way, it will also be possible to involve civil society and private companies to stimulate the development of new business sectors and new employment. For example, in the European REDRESS project, restoration interventions are leading to the development of new technologies, with robots capable of operating in deep-sea environments while the European CLIMAREST project, aims to provide digital tools to strengthen the involvement of stakeholders and society in marine ecosystems restoration.
In this study published by Nature Communications, researchers from 16 countries analysed the results of 764 marine ecosystem restoration interventions around the world. The restored habitats include seagrass meadows, tropical coral reefs, Mediterranean coralligenous, macroalgal forests, animal forests, mangroves and even deep-sea environments. This analysis demonstrated that marine ecosystem restoration is highly successful in over 64% of cases. Ecological restoration interventions were surprisingly effective even in areas where human impact has not been completely removed, demonstrating that it is possible to initiate restoration also in sites of national interest, such as the industrial complex of Bagnoli (Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea) or in areas characterized by multiple impacts such as the Adriatic Sea. These results demonstrate the immediate feasibility of a global plan of “blue restoration”. The benefits of restoration, according to the calculations reported in this study, are multiple, both to achieve contribution to climate change mitigation objectives and to promote blue growth and employment. Furthermore, the economic benefits can make investments in the sector profitable. For example, the restoration of macroalgae forests produces a value between 55,000 and 190,000 euros/hectare/year. Those of phanerogams can produce around 20,000 euros/hectare/year. However, the costs of restoring deep marine environments remain high, which can cost 5 to 50 times more than coastal ecosystems. This could make the mining of polymetallic nodules unprofitable considering the restoration costs that are necessary following these highly destructive activities. Already today, over 350 European companies are ready to launch themselves into this sector which will see a growing market in the field of environmental restoration in the coming years also thanks to the law on the Restoration of Nature. Technologies developed for restoration will also be useful for offsetting damage to marine habitats due to the development of ports, dams, marine cables, oil platforms, offshore wind and other human activities that can cause environmental impacts.
