REPORT+WEBINAR: Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate

UNEP (2021). Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate Nairobi. 56 pp.

• The report, as well as all related documents, including the Key Messages in all UN languages and various communication productsare accessible at this link.
• World Environment Day
• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

This report synthesizes evidence of the state of degradation of the world’s ecosystems and details the economic, environmental and social rewards that restoration can bring. The report shows that, far from being a ‘nice to have’, ecosystem restoration is needed on a large scale in order to achieve the sustainable development agenda. Over-exploitation of natural resources is embedded in economies and governance systems, and the resulting degradation is undermining hard-won development gains and threatening the well-being of future generations.

Countries need to deliver on their existing commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land and make similar commitments for marine and coastal areas. Ecosystem restoration is one of the most important ways of delivering nature-based solutions for food insecurity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity loss. It won’t be quick or easy, and it will take deep changes to everything from the way we measure economic progress to how we grow food and what we eat. But the beauty of ecosystem restoration is that it can happen at any scale – and everyone has a role to play.

Related:

3 June 2021. Press conference Launch of Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate

Facing the triple threat of climate change, loss of nature and pollution, the world must deliver on its commitment to restore at least one billion degraded hectares of land in the next decade – an area about the size of China.

• Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
• Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General, FAO
• Eduardo Mansur, Director, Environment, Climate and Biodiversity Office, FAO
• Luc Gnacadja, Chair, Report Steering Committee
• Barney Dickson, Lead Author, Nature for Climate Branch, UNEP

Panelists

• Susan Gardner, Director, Ecosystems Division, UNEP
• Eduardo Mansur, Director, Environment, Climate and Biodiversity Office, FAO
• Luc Gnacadja, Chair, Steering Committee
• Barnabas Dickson, Lead Author, Nature for Climate Branch, UNEP
• Moderator  - Musonda Mumba, UNDP and Chair of the GPFLR - Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration

4 June 2021. Virtual Launch Gala - UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

• Introduction to the launch event of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration by Saima Mohsin, Royal Botanic Gardens in London 
• Opening remarks by the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres to launch the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen – Celebrating World Environment Day 2021 and setting stage for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations QU Dongyu – Elaborating on FAO’s role as the co-lead in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Video message by Pope Francis on the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (read by a Cardinal) 
• Video message by Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar on the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Dialogue between Gisele Bundchen and restoration ecologist John D. Liu on the motivation for Restoration 
• Video message by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan – Host of World Environment Day 
• Video message by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel marking World Environment Day and the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Video message by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President and African Union Chairperson Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi explaining Africa’s role in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration - delivered by UNEP