Flagships of Restoration
The Decade of Restoration, 2021-2030 logo (credit: UNEP-FAO)
Little noticed, 10 ground-breaking initiatives were recognized for their goals to achieve environmental restoration by the year 2030. Launched during the annual World Environment Day event during this period, the Decade of Restoration was declared to ‘prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide’. Designated as flagships, they were identified as being the first, best, and most promising examples of what could represent scalable, long-term, restoration efforts that might be replicated elsewhere after the decade concludes.
The first projects were announced at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Canada, along with a virtual celebration held to congratulate the project organizers. Primatologist Jane Goodall; the actor Edward Norton; singer Ellie Goulding; Inger Andersen of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), among others joined to celebrate the awardees. Together, the goal of these initial efforts is to restore more than 260,000 sq miles of degraded landscapes and create nearly 15 million jobs in the process as well. New 'flagships' will be considered by the program until 2030. UNEP produced a video about degraded ecosystems illustrating the opportunities and benefits that restoring them could provide.
Two of the recognized examples included:
The Trilateral rainforest pact between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina to begin restoring sections of the Atlantic Forest that stretches in all three nations. This unique rainforest once covered parts of their coastal regions but has now been reduced to degraded fragments from logging, ranching, and urban development. Multiple organizations are now involved in this decades-long pack to protect and restore the forest where it had once existed. Their efforts were recognized with a 'restoration flagship' award for creating wildlife corridors endangered wildlife like the jaguar and the Golden Lion tamarin; improving regional fresh water supplies; implementing reforestation to rebuild resilience to the impacts of climate change; and creating thousands of new jobs. Some nearly 1.8 million acres have already been replanted and the end-of-decade goal is to restore approximately 2.5 million acres. The South American partners also hope to have restored nearly 40 million acres of Atlantic rainforest by 2050. This would be a major recovery accomplishment.
Likewise, the Island States Restoration Drive, established by Vanuatu, Saint Lucia, and Comoros, was recognized for their reef-to-ridge restoration efforts to help recover their island's vegetation. The partners developed a 'blue economic growth' plan for long-term sustainability on their islands located in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. Goals include a reduction in 'environmental stressors' that impact coral reefs making them vulnerable. They envision fish stocks recovering from improved water quality while other plans include replanting seagrass beds, mangroves, and mountain forests. The 3 nations intend to create a toolbox of solutions for sustainable island development as well. Their toolbox will be shared with other islanders who face similar rising sea levels and intensified storms resulting from regional climate change.
Everyone appreciates that environmental restoration takes time. It is far easier to degrade a landscape or coral reef system than to regain them. What will be particularly important is if these restoration efforts lead to sustainable results that could be applied elsewhere. WHB