WFP is now part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has become an official Collaborating Agency of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030, bringing forward its expertise in resilience building and food system restoration to protect the livelihoods of people facing environmental shock and stresses
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has become an official Collaborating Agency of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030. While a decade may sound like a long time, scientists have told the world that the next ten years will matter most, especially when protecting the livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable to environmental shocks and stresses.
WFP’s six decades of experience in resilience building and improving food systems for the world’s most vulnerable makes it a valuable player during the Decade. This same experience has taught WFP that reviving hundreds of millions of hectares across terrestrial and marine ecosystems is a daunting task and cannot be done alone. This is why WFP looks forward to collaborating with partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), along with all other UN Decade partners will be part of #GenerationRestoration and will coordinate the implementation of activity sets from the UN Decade’s strategy and help amplify the UN Decade and its activities in the regions.
Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact. Healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.
Restoration can happen in many ways — for example through actively planting or by removing pressures so that nature can recover on its own. It is not always possible — or desirable — to return an ecosystem to its original state. We still need farmland and infrastructure on land that was once forest, for instance, and ecosystems, like societies, need to adapt to a changing climate.
Between now and 2030, the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems could generate US$9 trillion in ecosystem services. Restoration could also remove 13 to 26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The economic benefits of such interventions exceed nine times the cost of investment, whereas inaction is at least three times more costly than ecosystem restoration.
All kinds of ecosystems can be restored, including forests, farmlands, cities, wetlands and oceans. Restoration initiatives can be launched by almost anyone, from governments and development agencies to businesses, communities and individuals. That is because the causes of degradation are many and varied, and can have an impact at different scales.
For instance, degradation may result from harmful policies such as subsidies for intensive farming or weak tenure laws that encourage deforestation. Lakes and coastlines can become polluted because of poor waste management or an industrial accident. Commercial pressures can leave towns and cities with too much asphalt and too few green spaces.
Restoring ecosystems large and small protects and improves the livelihoods of people who depend on them. It also helps to regulate disease and reduce the risk of natural disasters. In fact, restoration can help us achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
