Key points
- Restoration rebuilds degraded ecosystems by reducing threats, improving environmental conditions, and reintroducing native species through planting, habitat creation, pest and weed control, soil repair, and water management.
- Restoration is essential for reversing biodiversity loss in NSW, supporting ecosystem functions such as clean water, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, and overall environmental and community wellbeing.
- Restoration in NSW is delivered by many groups, including volunteers, First Nations communities, local councils, biodiversity offset programs, and carbon and nature repair markets.
- Climate change creates substantial challenges for restoration, with acute events (fires, floods, storms) and chronic changes (warming, altered rainfall, drought, sea‑level rise) impacting ecosystems and restoration activities.
- Climate‑related hazards increase restoration project risks and complexity, affecting soils, water, species survival and habitat stability, making flexible, diverse, and adaptive restoration approaches essential for long‑term success.
The importance of restoration in NSW
Restoration is the process of helping an ecosystem return as close as possible to its natural state by reducing threats, rebuilding habitat, improving environmental conditions, and reintroducing native species.
Restoration in NSW is driven by local volunteers, First Nations communities, local government, biodiversity offsets, carbon credit and nature repair markets, and climate adaptation initiatives that use nature-based solutions.
Restoration is important in NSW because the state has experienced environmental decline including significant losses in biodiversity. The NSW Plan for Nature (2024) recognises that government cannot simply be the manager of a steady decline and must instead reverse biodiversity loss by restoring habitats and ecosystems. This marks a shift in the NSW Government’s biodiversity policy agenda from simply protecting and conserving nature to protecting, conserving and restoring it, emphasising the critical role of restoration in putting nature on a path to recovery.
Restoring degraded habitats helps rebuild healthy ecosystems that support biodiversity and provide essential services such as clean water, nutrient cycling and climate regulation, all of which support both the environment and human wellbeing. Strengthening restoration efforts is also key to ensuring NSW’s landscapes remain resilient in the face of climate change.
How restoration is affected by climate change in NSW
There are several climate change hazards that may affect restoration in NSW. These include both extreme events and gradual long‑term changes, each posing different challenges for establishing and maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Extreme events: bushfires, floods, heatwaves and coastal hazards - such as storm surge, coastal flooding and storm‑driven erosion- can cause sudden and severe damage. Floods may wash away seedlings, fires can damage sensitive vegetation and fauna habitat, and strong winds or waves can displace artificial reefs and erode restored dunes and coastal vegetation. Extreme events can also create indirect impacts, such as canopy gaps that allow invasive species to spread.
Gradual changes: longer‑term shifts in climate - such as altered rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, sea‑level rise, drought and increased evapotranspiration- can gradually reduce restoration success. Changes in species, pest and disease distributions can introduce new pressures. Soil degradation (including erosion, nutrient loss and altered pH), increasing salinity, warmer waters and drought stress can all hinder plant growth, degrade habitat quality and reduce the success of revegetation and habitat creation. These ongoing pressures often increase the need for long‑term monitoring and site management.
These hazards can affect restoration in different ways across NSW, influencing ecosystem health, project costs, regulatory requirements and the long‑term success of restoration work.
Adapting restoration in NSW to a changing climate
Restoration in NSW needs to stay flexible as species shift, habitats change, and extreme events become more common. Projects should be designed to adjust to uncertainty and even to new ecosystem conditions. Using a wider mix of species, sites, and restoration methods increases the likelihood that projects will succeed as conditions change. Ongoing monitoring, adapting management as conditions change, and sharing what works will all help build more climate‑resilient restoration across the state.
More broadly, the NSW Government is taking action on climate change through multiple pathways, including the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023, the NSW Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and the NSW Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan 2025–2029.
Further detailed adaptation guidance for people managing conservation can be found on the Climate-adapted restoration practices page.
Related information
Climate Tools:
CSIRO Climate Change in Australia
Bureau Of Meteorology Climate Change Information
Australian Climate Service Data
Environmental Assessment Tools:
The Platform for Land and Nature Repair
Landscape Options and Opportunities for Carbon Projects
CSIRO and WWF Database on Climate Adaptation Interventions
Managing Changing Landscapes Research in NSW
NSW Flora Ecological Niche Finder
Climate-Ready Restoration (WWF & Greening Australia)
Restoration Network:
Australian Society for Ecological Restoration
National Landcare Network - Community Representation for Landcare
Case studies
The Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups is is using the Restore and Renew webtool to guide seed selection for their Climate Ready Revegetation Project.
The Restore and Renew webtool provides simple, science-backed guidance to improve restoration projects across New South Wales. In the Hunter Valley, it is helping to rebuild climate-ready, genetically diverse populations of the River Red Gum.
A community-led exhibition in Lismore challenged human-centred worldviews and revealed how Indigenous Knowledges can guide climate adaptation in profoundly different and powerful ways.