Officially launched in June 2021, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration was created to develop and lead international cooperation for the restoration of natural ecosystems, ensuring a sustainable future for coming generations. An official partner to the Decade, Reforest’Action is a direct contributor to the initiative through its ambition to protect ecosystems and to plant a billion trees by 2030.
What is the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration?
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) was instigated by the UN General Assembly following a proposal by 70 States to address concerns over the loss of biodiversity and the impact of climate change on nature and life.
Under the banner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this ten-year project aims to develop and lead an international movement for the restoration of natural ecosystems, ensuring a sustainable future for coming generations. It incorporates political advocacy to promote restoration, as well as hundreds of projects for action on the ground. This global initiative is critical as today only 1% of climate finance is allocated to Nature-Based Solutions. According to a study published in the journal Nature in 2020, a minimum target for the restoration of 30% of key ecosystems would help prevent the loss of 70% of species.
The UN Decade shares a common finishing line of 2030 with other international initiatives for the protection and restoration of forests, such as the New York Declaration, the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests, and the Bonn Challenge. The Decade is also contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which will also conclude in 2030.
Reforest’Action, partnering the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
#GenerationRestoration: a rich ecosystem of organisations working to ensure restoration
Thousands of small entities, businesses and individual actors each play a key role in the global movement for the restoration of natural ecosystems, and the construction of an economy built around restoration. The Actors in the United Nations Decade are entities from the private sector (small and medium-sized enterprises) and non-profit organisations who, like Reforest’Action, actively develop restoration programmes, advising on, supporting and facilitating restoration in the field.
By working hand in hand with local organisations, since 2010 Reforest’Action has led projects in many tens of countries across different continents to restore forest ecosystems affected by deforestation. Aware of the challenges, both global and local, we are helping protect and restore diversified forests to preserve and develop their multi-functionality and their ecosystem services, making them more resistant to the climate emergency. We are also careful to involve all stakeholders in the process, in particular from local communities and from our network of over 1,000 project leaders. Dedicated to implementing high-quality reforestation, our projects are aligned with a series of guiding principles in this field, such as those of the UN Decade, the IUCN’s Forest Landscape Restoration guidelines and Kew Gardens’ 10 Golden Rules for Reforestation. Through our ambitious project to protect and plant one million trees by 2030, Reforest’Action is actively participating in the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
The role of Reforest’Action as an Actor in the United Nations Decade
As an Actor-partner, Reforest’Action is an active stakeholder and participant in the Decade’s key events, both at a national and international level, for leading communications initiatives, and for playing a key role in a group of international experts and front-line organisations in the fight for ecosystem restoration. In this respect, Reforest’Action brings its expertise to the UN Decade’s “Best Practice” taskforce and contributes directly to the restoration of ecosystems in accordance with the roadmap and guidelines set out by the Decade. We are also passionate about promoting the United Nations Decade and its activity through our own ecosystem, as well as promoting and supporting initiatives for mobilising and engaging people around key dates, events and milestones.
The United Nations Decade is built around three pathways, to which Reforest’Action is committed in everything it does.
- Theme 1: Global movement. Over the next 10 years, Reforest’Action will help to foster a generation of key players in reforestation projects to support theme 1 of the United Nations Decade, as well as actions to promote public awareness to encourage restoration and protection of forests, and grow the number of reforestation projects being developed and financed.
- Theme 2: Political support. Reforest’Action is contributing to international dialogue on forests with actors around the world, such as international organisations, governments and other public-private partnerships. In this context, we are organising and participating in international events and regularly producing documentation on the challenges of restoration, particularly aimed at key decision makers.
- Theme 3: Technical capacity. Worldwide, Reforest’Action currently supports, both financially and in their implementation, around 1,000 projects with 900 actors in the field to optimise, monitor, and measure the impact of their projects. We are constantly working to strengthen these tools for building, monitoring and impact-measurement of these projects using a mix of the latest technology and traditional ways.
Our partnership with the United Nations Decade is part of a wider cooperation with large-scale international organisations, such as the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance and European Forest Institute. Find out more about our ecosystem of partners.