Combined with the compounding effects of global change, humanity’s ecological footprint is increasingly imposing unsustainable pressures on marine coastal and deep ecosystems across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The ongoing transformations and shifts are so intricate and synergistic that they may not be readily perceived as dramatic changes but rather as adaptations to current social and economic demands. The close interconnection of benthic and pelagic systems ensures that perturbations in the water column impact benthic communities most severely.

Marine Animal Forests (MAFs) stand as the foremost living three-dimensional benthic structures in the oceans, spanning from tropical to polar regions and from shallow to deep waters. Functionally similar in many ways to terrestrial forests, MAFs consist of sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, ascidians, bivalves, and other sessile benthic organisms. Serving as ecosystem engineers, MAF builders modify local hydrodynamics, nutrient flows, and influence biodiversity distribution. We are gradually understanding the role of MAFs in fostering biodiversity and biomass, while also acting as carbon immobilizators. One often overlooked yet crucial function of MAFs lies in their contribution to the global carbon cycle, with these enduring structures, whether in shallow or deep waters, serving as significant carbon reservoirs. In fact, MAFs capture and store carbon through various mechanisms, including food ingestion and symbiotic activity, particularly in mixotrophic organisms.

Over recent centuries, mature and complex Marine Animal Forests have been in decline, transitioning into more simplified communities, thereby diminishing their role as complex biostructures. This decline is mirrored in the reduction of various ecosystem services provided by healthy Marine Animal Forests. To counteract these detrimental trends, it is imperative to halt ecosystem-destructive practices, even if they are financially lucrative. This necessitates the provision of accurate data demonstrating the tangible losses incurred by such practices on human societies, coupled with evidence that alternative approaches can deliver economic and societal benefits. Therefore, there is an urgent need for comprehensive and integrated analysis of data to inform evidence-based decision-making and foster sustainable management and regenerative practices.

This information holds critical importance not only for local communities and stakeholders but also for informing policy frameworks and shaping future scenarios by utilizing such data to assess the significance and restoration plans of these three-dimensional underwater forests. To effectively scale up restoration efforts beyond existing frameworks, new concepts must be embraced, integrating a wider range of stakeholders, and ensuring active participation. At the core of large-scale restoration endeavors lie education and citizen engagement, coupled with meticulously planned regeneration programs based on functional ecology, which can adapt restoration plans to the rapid changes occurring in our oceans.