By Lillian Aluanga
Restoration of the world’s ecosystems could provide the key to reducing poverty, creating jobs and improving food security.
According to findings of a report titled Dead Planet, Living Planet-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development, restoration of forests, mangroves, coral reefs, soils, and even fresh water, could trigger huge returns that would change the lives of millions across the world.
Nile waters and the Mau Forest destruction have been on focus in matters conservation. |
The report, released on the eve of World Environment Day, documents more than 30 successful case studies of restoration projects ranging from deserts and rainforests to rivers and coasts, and underlines the positive effects on the world’s development goals.
Nature Mismanagement
"This report is aimed at bringing two fundamental messages to governments, communities and citizens," said Steiner.
"Namely that mismanagement of natural and nature-based assets is under cutting development on a scale that dwarfs the recent economic crisis. And that well-planned investments and re-investments in the restoration of these vast, natural and nature-based utilities has a high rate of return."
Ecosystems like forests, coral reefs, soils and freshwater are estimated to provide services worth over $70 trillion a year to the world’s population. These services include food security, keeping waters clean, providing buffers against extreme weather and providing medicine.
For instance forested wetlands are believed to treat more waste water than traditional sand filtration in treatment plants, while many of the world’s key crops like coffee, tea and mangoes depend on the pollination and pest control services of birds and insects. Sea grasses, marshes and tropical forests are also important in removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, but their steady decline may accelerate climate change and worsen countries’ vulnerabilities to its effects.
Estimates show that the projected loss of services provided by ecosystems could lead up to 25 per cent loss in the world’s food production by 2050, increasing the risks of hunger for a global population of six billion, which is estimated to rise to over nine billion by 2050.
Loss Of Mangroves
Already, loss of mangroves, wetlands and forests has been cited as a contributor to why 270 million people are being affected by natural disasters, annually.
Currently, nearly two thirds of the world’s ecosystems are considered degraded as a result of damage, mismanagement and a failure to invest in their productivity, health and sustainability.
It is believed that damage to the environment is fanning the impact of natural disasters like floods and droughts killing more than 124,000 people worldwide every year.
The report documents how restoration of degraded grasslands by local communities in South Africa’s Drakensburg mountains could increase base water flows during low-flow periods (i.e. winter months when communities are the most vulnerable to having no access to any other source of water) by an additional 3.9million cubic metres.
In Tanzania, the Shinyanga Soil Conservation Programme, started with the aim of restoring degraded woodlands, stands out as a highly effective traditional resource management system.
Elsewhere, decades of rehabilitation on the Golden Horn Estuary in Istanbul, Turkey, which saw the demolition and relocation of industries and homes along the shores, creation of waste water infrastructure and removal of sludge, have led to improved water quality.
The report, however, cites pitfalls of restoration projects which include; unrealistic goals or changes in restoration targets, improper and partial restoration, and unintended transplant of non–native invasive pests or species, but is quick to add that should these be addressed, up to 44 per cent of the services provided by ecosystems could be restored.
