June 5, 2021 – World Environment Day. Are you joining the #GenerationRestoration?

On World Environment Day, June 5, the United Nations is calling for the restoration of our ecosystems. To this end, it has created a practical guide with easy actions to undertake at all levels and has set a target of ten years to rebuild our damaged environment. Will you join the #GenerationRestoration movement? So that, you can also share it on social media under this hashtag.

Investing in our ecosystem is investing in our future. Under this premise, as every June 5, the traditional World Environment Day is celebrated, which this year focuses on the restoration of the planet.

What is the starting point? According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FRA 2020), 178 million hectares of forest have been lost since 1990. Globally, we now have 4.06 billion hectares. Global warming is bleaching coral reefs, which are at risk of becoming extinct within 30 years. Wetlands are being destroyed, biodiversity is collapsing… Climate change is advancing and the consequences for ecosystems are devastating.

We understand ecosystem as the place where living beings and the environment interact. Therefore, only if we take care of it, we will be able to enjoy good health and, thus, guarantee life.

“The United Nations has published a practical guide of actions to restore our environment.

And how do we do this? The United Nations has published a practical guide of actions that we can take now to restore the spaces in which we usually move: forests, oceans, mountains, cities, or agricultural land, among others. The aforementioned guide is focused on reversing the current situation and stopping it, but, above all, to prevent it for the future.

In forests, we can take such vital actions as planting trees, controlling massive logging, reducing the transit of animals that may eat the new shoots or promoting sustainable agriculture.

“Cities need to have green spaces that act as “lungs”, and oceans must be cleaned of waste.

Cities, would you know what proportion of the earth’s land surface they occupy? Only one percent. And taking into account the amount of human lives they concentrate, it is more than necessary to have green spaces that act as “lungs” in public areas. And taking care of them is everyone’s task.

It is also important to adapt the current polluting infrastructures of urban centers to more efficient and sustainable ones.

The oceans must be cleaned of waste that is damaging to those who inhabit them. Arable land must be managed in a sensible way, avoiding excessive grazing and tillage, as well as monocultures, maintaining pastures, which serve to nourish the land. And so on, a long list of scenarios and tasks to be undertaken.

All in all, the United Nations is taking advantage of this June 5, 2021 to launch what is known as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, so we have ten years ahead of us to work for our environment. In addition, it has launched the #GenerationRestoration movement on social networks to encourage collaboration and the creation of a global awareness around the restoration of our ecosystem.

Rocío Castro Moreno, Communication Department of Abengoa.