FREE SPIRIT JOINS THE BEST PRACTICE TASK FORCE
OF THE UNITED NATIONS 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 BEST PRACTICES
Unsustainable land use and destruction of natural ecosystems have contributed to global land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss. To prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021–2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
All ecosystems, terrestrial and aquatic, have the potential to be restored. For the Decade, ecosystem restoration encompasses a wide continuum of activities that contribute to protecting intact ecosystems, avoid further degradation and repairing degraded ones. It means that restoration can happen in many ways and that it is not always possible – or desirable – to return an ecosystem to its original state. In that case, the goal is to optimize ecosystem functions and services, and to improve management practices and governance.
To support the implementation of the Decade, a FAO-led Task Force on Best Practices was established. This Task Force focuses on shaping the knowledge component of the UN Decade, including capacity development efforts and capitalization as well as sharing and dissemination of good practices for restoration in all ecosystems.
OUTPUTS
A roadmap was collaboratively developed around seven outputs:
- Output 1: Task Force is operational, with clear Terms of Reference and representatives from key technical organizations.
- Output 2: Ecosystems and geographies where knowledge capitalization will be focused at the first stage are prioritized.
- Output 3: Partners are identified, and ways to interact with them to share, collect or generate knowledge are agreed upon.
- Output 4: Capacity needs assessment is undertaken at global level for all stakeholders involved in ecosystem restoration.
- Output 5: Action plan on knowledge and learning is developed and approved by the task force, based on the results of the capacity needs assessment.
- Output 6: Terms of Reference for a short-list of flagship products that could be elaborated in the context of the UN Decade are developed.
- Output 7: Good practices are collected and / or capitalized according to pre-agreed formats, endorsed and made available through the UN Decade digital hub and other partners’ websites and resources.
