Restoring ecosystems means protecting their biodiversity and helping them to deliver benefits for people and nature. It means using ecosystems on land and in the oceans in ways that strengthen their natural resources and processes. Actions for restoration can also mean preventing degradation or reducing its extent.
Individuals, groups and organizations can restore generation through various ways. Faith leaders and faith groups, businesses, workers and trade unions, teachers, youth groups, civil society organizations, farmers and livestock keepers, indigenous people, women, governments and scientists have their own unique roles to rehabilitate the ecosystem.
One should start one’s own on-the-ground initiative, join an existing restoration or conservation effort, or help build an alliance to give a bigger boost to nature’s comeback. But all initiatives need to be grounded in local realities, and some strategies may fit better than others. Here are some of the ways to consider your next steps.
The individuals’ habits and consumer choices are in their hands; for these reasons doing the right thing, and persuading friends and colleagues have great roles in restoring the nature for the next generation. Everyone has to take part and speak up in private and public discussions about how to improve the local environment.
Everybody, who can think and has financial sources should join, donate to or volunteer for an organization that is protecting and restoring nature. As well, one needs to learn about local ecosystems and what is ailing them.
Restore your own balcony, roadside, yard or garden with planting and composting– it’s an ecosystem, too! Faith leaders and faith groups have essential roles in nature restoration. Many faiths have clear teachings about caring for the natural world. They should promote them through sermons and discussions.
They also need to launch restoration projects that draw on the dedication and skills of different group members. And they have to green any properties and land controlled by the community, including places of worship and remembrance. In the same way, they have to be inspired by what other faith groups are already doing.
Businesses also have essential roles in restoring the ecosystem. They have to apply their business skills and financial resources to a restoration project that benefits your local area or the places you impact through their works.
They need to work with their staff to choose or design the project. They could also link with other liked-minded enterprises to ramp up the scale. They should green their procurement, production and distribution policies to reduce the footprint of their products and operations. Restore the ecosystem functions of their own premises.
In the same way, workers and trade unions own crucial roles in rehabilitating the nature. They can launch and implement local and national initiatives to restore ecosystems that are important to workers and union members and ask employers for support. In addition to this, they can campaign for the protection of workers whose livelihoods and health may be threatened by ecosystem degradation.
Similarly, teachers have essential roles to play in restoring the ecosystem. They teach students about ecosystems, sustainability and the risks of environmental decline so they become the ecosystem stewards of the future. They put the concepts into action with restoration projects in the school compound and the local community, for instance to nurture trees, use compost, adopt a local ecosystem and prevent pollution.
They also have to use school trips to demonstrate the value of healthy ecosystems. One Tree Planted’s curriculum provides ideas for teaching about restoration, from primary school to university. Youth groups are very important to restore the ecosystem. They should stand up for their future by raising their voices so that policy makers hear the call to protect and restore ecosystems.
They need to organize those discussions themselves and invite environmental experts to speak and the wider public to listen so that awareness of the benefits of restoration can blossom. They also have a duty to match all the words with deeds by volunteering collectively to get their hands dirty in restoration projects, or devise and launch one of their own.
Likewise, civil society organizations have decisive roles in restoring the ecosystem. They can poll their members on the priorities for ecosystem protection and restoration in their areas. They could also find out what skills they have in-house. Also they must decide where they can have the greatest impact. Would starting or supporting a project be best? Are they better off presenting thought-through policy options to political leaders for action? Or would organizing an education campaign be the way to go?
And they can join an alliance or build on. They need to make the link between their work and the health of our ecosystems – directly or indirectly. They have to trust their expertise and make the connections. Equally, cities and local authorities have central roles in restoring the nature. As well as undertaking their own restoration actions, they can enable and support private-sector and civil society restoration initiatives, especially those on public land.
They can be a strong local voice for restoration and create platforms for others to amplify the message. Public contracting is another powerful tool to promote sustainability. Research has shown that small shifts – like mowing urban lawns less intensely – increases biodiversity and saves money.
Correspondingly, farmers and livestock keepers do have essential positions in rehabilitating the nature. As custodians of the land, they have a special responsibility and opportunity to nurture and restore our ecosystems.
As well as trying some of the restoration approaches for farmlands and grasslands, they can cooperate with other actors to restore whole landscapes that include many different ecosystems, both natural and modified.
Indigenous people are also among the vital role players in nurturing the nature. If they live on their ancestral lands, they have a unique responsibility – and often a long track record – in managing their land sustainably.
Consider what lessons from indigenous knowledge could be applied more widely to protect and restore ecosystems, and use platforms associated with the UN Decade to spread the word and build alliances for sound environmental stewardship.
Furthermore, women have key roles in repairing the nature. The overexploitation and degradation of ecosystems is often linked to inequality, including unfairly restricted access to and control of natural resources by women.
They need to integrate their restoration projects with steps to eliminate the exclusion of and discrimination against women and other disadvantaged groups so that sustainable development benefits everyone equally. Generation restoration and generation equality go hand in hand. The Girl Scouts have to launch a toolkit for getting young girls involved in tree planting.
Additionally, governments have to create the conditions for a successful UN Decade by designing and implementing economic policies and governance structures that improve environmental management and fund on-the-ground restoration.
They have to join the vanguard of global efforts to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation. Take bold steps and pledge ambitious action to not only stop but reverse the current destructive trends.
Governments need to design subsidies, fiscal policy and COVID-19 recovery packages to boost ecosystem restoration. They have to use procurement to accelerate the shift to sustainability.
At last but not least, scientists need to deepen our understanding of the importance of ecosystems, the threats they face and develop solutions with insights from the social and natural sciences. They must lend their expertise to restoration initiatives and monitor their impacts to further refine our responses.
They have to make use of innovations in technology – from remote sensing to artificial intelligence – to help us better monitor the effects of restoration across ecosystems as stated in Ecosystem Restoration Playbook.
BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
The Ethiopian Herald May 5/2013
