To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the United Nations designated 20 May as World Bee Day.

 

Close to 75 per cent of the world’s fruit and seed crops depend, at least in part, on pollinators. However, all pollinators, especially bees, are in serious decline, primarily due to intensive agricultural practices, pesticide use, invasive species, diseases and climate change.  

 

Check out World Environment Day 2024 Practical Guide to learn what you can do to help protect and conserve pollinators on which our survival depends.  

Trees would not exist without some help from millions of species of fungi and bacteria that swap nutrients between soil and the roots of trees, forming a vast, interconnected web of organisms dubbed the "wood wide web".  



Scientists are gaining new insight into this web by using a database of thousands of tree species living in more than 70 countries. 



Ecologist Thomas Crowther and an Advisory Board member of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration unveils the wonders of the "wood wide web" and shares how the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration supports restoring these connections in a new Netflix documentary series “Our Living World”. 

The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will hold a World Environment Day forum with youth at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin on 5 June as part of environment week. 



The forum will focus on nature restoration and Germany’s work under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 



It will also explore how biodiversity loss will impact young people and how ecosystem restoration can help forge a better future. 

Following the 2004 tsunami, Sri Lanka led a massive drive to plant mangroves. However, noticing that only approximately three per cent of the planted saplings survived, the country changed tactics: from simply planting mangroves to nurturing them.  



Mangrove forests thrive along the border between land and sea and are the first line of defense for coastlines, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. They are also a haven for fish.  



Recognized as a World Restoration Flagship, Sri Lanka’s mangrove restoration efforts are benefiting 5,000 households and creating over 4,000 new jobs. 

For only the second time in more than 50 years, World Environment Day (WED) is coming to West Asia. In 2024, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting WED on 5 June with a focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. 

Want to make this WED, the most successful one yet? Are you planning an ecosystem restoration event and activity in West Asia? Then don’t wait and register your activity or event. You will receive a certificate of participation after the Day. 

You can also check out the WED Practical Guide to get ideas how to get involved and become #GenerationRestoration. 

Renowned for their natural beauty and rich biodiversity, the forests of the Bamougoum Chiefdom in the western highlands of Cameroon have been sacred grounds for generations.  

However, decades of deforestation, unsustainable farming practices and agricultural expansion threaten the survival of these forests and the species that inhabit them. 

To protect and conserve these sacred forests, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have teamed up with Cameroon’s government and local NGOs to enhance the legal protection status for key biodiversity areas.  

The projects are part of ongoing investments mobilized by UNEP through GEF and other donors, to promote the protection and sustainable management of the Congo basin forests.   

 

On 5 June, Saudi Arabia will host World Environment Day 2024, an annual celebration of the planet which this year focuses on desertification, land degradation and drought resilience.   

To combat land degradation and desertification, the Kingdom has started the Saudi Green Initiative turn 30 per cent of the country’s land into nature reserves, plant 10 billion trees and restore 40 million hectares of degraded land to tackle drought, desertification, and land degradation threatening the region. 

 

Globally, more than 2 billion hectares of the world’s land is degraded, affecting half the global population, and threatening countless species. 

Soil is degrading, droughts are increasing and once fertile land is turning into desert. But there are glimmers of hope.  

In the high Andes of Latin America, hundreds of communities are uniting across five countries to secure water sources and mitigate climate change. Learn how they do it – and why an old tree is a secret weapon in their fight.  

 

Acción Andina has been recognized as a World Restoration Flagship under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. These initiatives represent Earth’s frontiers of hope. To learn more about other restoration initiatives, visit UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Do you know how many people around the world are affected by droughts each year? Do you know what is the leading cause of land degradation? Or what is Earth’s most biodiverse habitat? 

This year’s World Environment Day, held on 5 June, focuses on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. Ahead of World Environment Day, find out how much you know about the biggest crises facing our ecosystems. Take the World Environment Day quiz.

Everybody alive now is part of a generation that is the first to witness the devastating effects of environmental degradation.  



Drought, land degradation and desertification have the potential to destroy life on planet earth. As the campaign for World Environment Day starts, it is a good opportunity to get involved.  



The message is clear. Ecosystems restoration at mass scale is needed to tackle climate change, save species from extinction and secure our future.  



For this year’s World Environment Day, lend Earth a helping hand by becoming #GenerationRestoration. Check out “We Are #GenerationRestoration: A Practical Guide” to find out how.