Learn about the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration
The theme of World Environment Day 2021 is Restoring the Ecosystem, and Pakistan will be the global host for this day, as World Environment Day will start the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a global mission to restore billions of hectares of forests To agricultural land and from the heights of the mountains to the depths of the sea.
According to business-standard, humans are exploiting and destroying the planet's ecosystems. Every three seconds, the world loses enough forests to cover a football field.
Over the past century, we have destroyed half of our wetlands, up to 50% of the world's coral reefs have already been lost, and up to 90% of coral reefs could be lost by 2050, even if global warming is limited to an increase of 1.5°C.
Ecosystem loss is depriving the world of carbon sinks, such as forests and wetlands, at a time when humanity cannot afford them. Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased for three consecutive years and the planet has become a potential location for a climate change disaster, so we must now fundamentally rethink our relationship with the living world, with natural ecosystems and their biodiversity, and work to restore them.
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals that interact with each other in a given area, as well as with their nonliving environments. Nonliving environments include weather, land, sun, soil, climate, and atmosphere. An ecosystem relates to the way all these different organisms live in close proximity to each other and how they interact with each other.
What does ecosystem restoration mean?
Ecosystem restoration means preventing, stopping, and reversing this damage to move from exploiting nature to treating it, and ecosystem restoration mean helping to restore ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as maintaining ecosystems that remain intact. Recovery can occur in a number of ways, for example through active cultivation or by removing stresses so that nature can recover on its own.
How can the ecosystem be restored?
All types of ecosystems, including forests, farmlands, cities, wetlands, and oceans, can be restored through restoration initiatives by almost anyone, from governments and development agencies to businesses, communities, and individuals, because the causes of degradation are many and varied, and can have an impact at different levels.