UN Decade on ecosystem restoration

Free Spirit is proud to join leading environmental organizations as an official partner in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems, vital to our lives and well-being, all around the world. As an actor and official partner, Free Spirit will play an active role in managing and shaping the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Building on our extensive experience to protect and restore nature, our long-term commitment will entail actively funding and leading efforts to realize ecosystem restoration globally, and contributing new science and research to help scale up these efforts effectively.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It aims to halt the degradation of ecosystems, and restore them to achieve global goals. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the UN Decade in 2019 following a proposal for action by over 70 countries. The UN Decade runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change.

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.

The actors of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration are private companies and non profit organizations. They have joined a global movement  around the world to help create and accelerate initiatives to restore forest landscapes, grasslands, peatlands, rivers, wetlands, seagrass and critical coastal environments like coral reefs and mangroves.

Free Spirit is a non profit organization dedicated to protecting our planet. Therefore, our non profit organisation will play an active role in executing a strategy to restore nature. By working in close collaboration with local organisations, since 2018 Free Spirit has led projects in many  countries across different continents to restore forest ecosystems affected by deforestation.

Restoring forest ecosystems involves returning trees to former forest land and improving the condition of degraded forests. As well as planting native tree species, it can include conserving wild plants and animals and protecting the soils and water sources that are part of the forest ecosystem. Land cleared for farming that falls into disuse is ideal for forest restoration. In existing forests, native species can be planted to regenerate the tree cover. In some cases, forest trees will re-grow naturally. Forest restoration can also mean nurturing patches of forest and woodland in landscapes that also include busy farms and villages.

Free Spirit has created the programme “re-green the planet”, a reforestation initiative all over the world. Inspired by the Kenyan Nobel Prized environmental activist’s work, Wangari Maathai, our non profit organisation plans to plant several millions of trees within this decade.

Restoring oceans and coasts means reducing the pressure on those ecosystems so they can recover, both naturally and by re-seeding or transplanting key species. It also means understanding how to make both ecosystems and communities more resilient in the face of global change. For instance, governments and communities need to make fishing sustainable. Pollutants must be treated before they reach the ocean, and solid waste like plastics kept out completely. Growing coastal cities should protect, not replace, coastal ecosystems. And coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses must be carefully managed and actively restored so that oceans continue to support billions of livelihoods globally.

Free Spirit has created the programme “O’DYSSEY« . O’DYSSEY is a marine conservation programme created by the Free Spirit Foundation. We are a collective of divers, photographers, filmmakers and storytellers dedicated to protecting the oceans and marine wildlife.

Free Spirit will bring its expertise to the UN Decade’s “Best Practice” and « Youth » task forces and will collaborate directly with experts all over the world in accordance with the roadmap and guidelines set out by the Decade.