It’s been an incredible day for #GenerationRestoration and a strong start to a critical decade when the world must unite to revive and restore millions of hectares of ecosystems for the benefit of people and nature.
Hosted by Pakistan in partnership with UNEP, this year’s World Environment Day served as the formal launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, speakers at the event – including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, China’s President Xi Jinping, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, heads of UN agencies and government ministers – stressed the importance of restoration in global efforts to mitigate climate change and promote sustainable development.
If you missed it, you can watch Pakistan’s World Environment Day event again here.
“The degradation of the natural world is already undermining the well-being of 3.2 billion people - or 40 per cent of humanity. Luckily, the Earth is resilient. But she needs our help. We still have time to reverse the damage we have done,” Guterres said.
“This global movement will bring together governments, businesses, civil society and private citizens in an unprecedented effort to heal the Earth,” he added.
This burgeoning global movement made its presence felt on social media all through the day. In collaboration with ByteDance, UNEP challenged users on the social media platform TikTok to share their ecosystem restoration action using the #GenerationRestoration hashtag. Videos with the hashtag have been viewed over 40 million times, with contributions from influencers including UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors Alex Rendell and Antoinette Taus.
Read the full report on the day’s activities here
World Environment Day may be nearly done but the work is just beginning. The UN Decade aims to mobilise hundreds of millions of people to restore nature and foster a global restoration culture in which restoration initiatives are scaled up across the planet.
As we move forward together, learn more about ecosystem restoration here and join #GenerationRestoration to be part of a movement that will define our times.