Commemorating World Environment Day 2024 – Restoration!

World Environment Day was established in 1972 as an international event that represents our collective commitment to preserving our planet. 

The theme for this year established by the United Nations is centered around restoration. Restoring land, halting desertification and building drought resilience. Land sustains life on earth. Forests, farmlands, grasslands and mountains provide humanity with goods and services that make it possible to sustain life and its enjoyment. These landscapes are supported by aquatic ecosystems, such as lakes, rivers and oceans, which sustain the water cycles that keep land fertile. 

We know that the world’s ecosystems are under threat. Unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are driving the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. It is estimated that more than one-fifth of the earth’s land area is degraded[1]. It is further estimated that 3.2 billion people of the world’s population are impacted by land degradation[2], which disproportionately affects those that are least equipped to cope; the rural communities, smallholder farmers and the extremely poor, who are mainly women and youth[3]. If land degradation remains unchecked it could reduce the global food productivity by 12 per cent, causing food prices to soar by up to 30 per cent by 2040[4].  

The theme underscores the urgent need to restore degraded landscapes to enhance adaptation to climate change, promote human well-being, create economic opportunities, and drive sustainable development. Successful land restoration requires an approach that uses knowledge and ambition across generations. Anyone alive today is part of a generation that has witnessed the devastating effects of environmental degradation. As it stands, we could be the planet’s last hope to revise course. Wherever we are, we can do something!

Everyone has to be involved! Conducting comprehensive awareness campaigns and community outreach programs through engaging and empowering individuals and communities, urging proactive steps towards environmental stewardship, particularly in land restoration for climate resilience, is critical to educate the public about the subject, and to solicit its participation in making a difference.

Engaging individuals, academia, civil society, schools and universities to volunteer time and labour and contribute to the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes and ecosystems is critical. Individuals and community actions buttress the systemic change required in society to achieve any genuine transition. Therefore, NGOs, faith organisations and community groups are a powerful source of change in the world. We can all use our voice and choices to drive change.

Governments and policymakers should participate in putting adequate policies in place to ensure the implementation of regulations supporting land restoration efforts. By advocating for sustainable land management practices and conservation policies, governments strive to create an enabling environment conducive to ecosystem restoration and enhanced climate resilience.

Further governments can enact regulations, tax incentives and subsidies that shift investments towards large scale restoration and infrastructure projects that do not degrade ecosystems. Businesses on the other hand can integrate ecosystem restoration into their business models. In addition, businesses can develop sustainable technologies while implementing efficient waste management practices. 

Cities and municipalities can increase the urban forest cover to improve air quality, provide more shade and reduce the need for mechanical cooling. In addition, they can preserve wetlands in urban areas to alleviate deadly climate-induced heatwaves and increase biodiversity in urban areas. 

It is imperative that mechanisms are devised to bring back degraded ecosystems to life. Restoring more degraded land world over will go a long way towards achieving the sustainable development goals, reversing nature loss and curbing climate change. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, landmark pact reached in 2022 to protect nature, binds countries to ensure that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of degraded terrestrial, inland water and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration. 

In closing, as we commemorate this year’s World Environment Day the state of the Earth affects all of us both now and in the future. No matter who and where you are, everyone alive today has a critical role to play for the future of the planet. Let’s all do our part to preserve the only home we have.