The Ecosystem Need Us ….
The world is facing severe challenging issues related to the impact of human being. Many of the world’s ecosystems have undergone significant degradation with negative impacts on biological diversity and people’s livelihoods. Peoples are suffering the consequences of the climate emergency, food and water insecurity and the latest one, the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecosystem is the most important ally for us to meet these challenges. Therefore, protecting and managing the ecosystem in a sustainable manner is essential but its still not enough. We need the ecosystem restoration!
We need to recreate a balanced relationship between ecosystem and us. A healthy restored ecosystems or habitats provide many benefits. In term of health and welfare, the restoration of ecosystem can provide benefits and services which are essential to physical and mental health such as clean air, climate regulation and disease prevention. Restoration of farmlands and the food-producing services of natural ecosystems can help to achieve the zero hunger of the Sustainable Development Goal. Of cause by restoration also can reverse biodiversity losses and increase provision of ecosystem services. In term of economy situation, the longer that ecosystem are left to degrade, and the more degraded they become, the larger the costs to society due to decreasing ecosystem services and the higher cost of the restoration itself. Ecosystem restoration can play an important role in people’s adaptation to climate change. As an example, successful mangrove restoration projects is accurate attention to local hydrology and basic biology of mangrove trees and their associated fauna. Natural ecosystems offer critical services to people including the provisioning of clean water, sanitation and irrigation. Globally 81% of cities could reduce sediment or nutrient pollution in the water used by their population by coupling forest protection and restoration with improvements in agricultural practices. Fresh water is essential to food security, energy production and health. Restoring degraded ecosystems also reduces the pressure on resources, helping to prevent conflicts and migration in the long term.
Between economic priorities and environmental concerns, the government do not have to choose as the restoration agenda can help deliver on goals for livelihoods, food and water security, international trade, poverty alleviation and human rights. However, sustainable restoration requires supportive and lasting social, economic and governance structure, engaged and empowered stakeholders, and a strong scientific evidence base to guide restoration practices.
The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 was formally launch on June 5. It was a decade where efforts to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems will be made. This declaration was made with the aim of supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of successful ecosystem restoration.
To achieve the aims of the UN Decade requires all stage of people to engage in effective restoration of all degraded ecosystems. We can call on all stakeholders to recognize the importance of human rights, tenure rights and traditional ecological knowledge for ecosystem restoration. Our government can incorporate a significant allocations for ecosystem restoration as a central component of their COVID-19 recovery plans. Also to include restoration goals in jurisdictional and urban development plans, and raise awareness across the population about the importance of healthy ecosystems and urban green spaces. The urban infrastructure and services need to be sustain through the investment in the health and productivity of ecosystems. Private sector companies that rely on ecosystems for their supply chains to source only from sustainable sources. They can eliminate deforestation from supply chains, and to re-invest significantly into supply chain security through ecosystem conservation and restoration. As a researcher, we need to further increase our understanding of best practices, monitoring and the multiple benefits of successful ecosystem restoration. And as a educator, need to educate the next generation of citizens to be aware of the value of nature, and to train a generation of entrepreneurs who can scale up restoration efforts. Lets bring together the young generation to play an active leadership role in ecosystem restoration locally, nationally and globally.
“Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere.”
– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 2021
We need to recreate a balanced relationship between ecosystem and us. A healthy restored ecosystems or habitats provide many benefits. In term of health and welfare, the restoration of ecosystem can provide benefits and services which are essential to physical and mental health such as clean air, climate regulation and disease prevention. Restoration of farmlands and the food-producing services of natural ecosystems can help to achieve the zero hunger of the Sustainable Development Goal. Of cause by restoration also can reverse biodiversity losses and increase provision of ecosystem services. In term of economy situation, the longer that ecosystem are left to degrade, and the more degraded they become, the larger the costs to society due to decreasing ecosystem services and the higher cost of the restoration itself. Ecosystem restoration can play an important role in people’s adaptation to climate change. As an example, successful mangrove restoration projects is accurate attention to local hydrology and basic biology of mangrove trees and their associated fauna. Natural ecosystems offer critical services to people including the provisioning of clean water, sanitation and irrigation. Globally 81% of cities could reduce sediment or nutrient pollution in the water used by their population by coupling forest protection and restoration with improvements in agricultural practices. Fresh water is essential to food security, energy production and health. Restoring degraded ecosystems also reduces the pressure on resources, helping to prevent conflicts and migration in the long term.
Between economic priorities and environmental concerns, the government do not have to choose as the restoration agenda can help deliver on goals for livelihoods, food and water security, international trade, poverty alleviation and human rights. However, sustainable restoration requires supportive and lasting social, economic and governance structure, engaged and empowered stakeholders, and a strong scientific evidence base to guide restoration practices.
The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 was formally launch on June 5. It was a decade where efforts to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems will be made. This declaration was made with the aim of supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of successful ecosystem restoration.
To achieve the aims of the UN Decade requires all stage of people to engage in effective restoration of all degraded ecosystems. We can call on all stakeholders to recognize the importance of human rights, tenure rights and traditional ecological knowledge for ecosystem restoration. Our government can incorporate a significant allocations for ecosystem restoration as a central component of their COVID-19 recovery plans. Also to include restoration goals in jurisdictional and urban development plans, and raise awareness across the population about the importance of healthy ecosystems and urban green spaces. The urban infrastructure and services need to be sustain through the investment in the health and productivity of ecosystems. Private sector companies that rely on ecosystems for their supply chains to source only from sustainable sources. They can eliminate deforestation from supply chains, and to re-invest significantly into supply chain security through ecosystem conservation and restoration. As a researcher, we need to further increase our understanding of best practices, monitoring and the multiple benefits of successful ecosystem restoration. And as a educator, need to educate the next generation of citizens to be aware of the value of nature, and to train a generation of entrepreneurs who can scale up restoration efforts. Lets bring together the young generation to play an active leadership role in ecosystem restoration locally, nationally and globally.
“Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere.”
– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 2021
