Humanity depends on nitrogen for food and it is an essential element of all life. However, excess and inefficient nitrogen use is responsible for degradation of air and water quality, climate change and loss of biodiversity. We must manage our nitrogen use more sustainably, and UNEP is coordinating a global drive to do just that.

Ahead of the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration on World Environment Day on 5 June, UNEP is organising a webinar, alongside World Environment Day host Pakistan, to explore how nitrogen management can help revive natural spaces while combating hunger, improving human health and tackling climate change.

Humanity’s relationship with nitrogen over the coming decade will be critical in determining whether we meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Some goals, such as ending hunger and poverty, will require better access to nitrogen. Others, such as protecting life on land and below water as well as climate action, will require reducing nitrogen pollution. All will benefit from better nitrogen management and more effective policies.

The webinar will include a presentation on Pakistan’s nitrogen management plan by Tariq Aziz, Lead of the South Asian Nitrogen Hub.

Check out this Q&A with Mr. Aziz to learn more about the use of nitrogen in South Asia.

Other speakers at the webinar will include H.E. Malik Amin Aslam, Minister of Climate Change and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan; Nandula Raghuram, Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative; and Mark Sutton, a leading nitrogen expert.

Find out more about the role of nitrogen in ecosystem restoration in this article and join the webinar to explore the topic further.

What: Sustainable Nitrogen Management for Ecosystem Restoration

When: June 4

When: 1:30 - 3:30PM EAT; 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM BST; 1530 - 1730 Pakistan; 1030 - 1230 UTC

Register here

Get all the facts and figures about ecosystem restoration here.

Check out the official schedule of events for World Environment Day, and join in by registering your own event here to be part of #GenerationRestoration.

In 2020, Pakistan launched the Protected Areas Initiative, which aims to increase protected areas such as national parks, wetlands and wildlife reserves to 15 per cent of the country’s total area by 2023. In the last two years, protected area coverage has already increased to 13.9 per cent and further progress looks assured.

Pakistan is following a global trend, according to UNEP’s flagship report Protected Planet. Since 2010, 21 million km2 of protected and conserved areas, or 42 per cent of the global total, has been added.

Ecosystem restoration is one of the most important ways of delivering nature-based solutions for a range of societal challenges, including climate change. Scientists say the next 10 years will be critical if the world is to avert runaway climate change. Nature can and must be part of the solution while we decarbonize all sectors of our economy.

Pakistan is hosting this year’s World Environment Day on June 5, and leading celebrations to mark the official launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Follow the virtual gala launch of the Decade on June 4 here.

Read more here about how Pakistan is delivering on its promise to protect more of its precious ecosystems.

Learn more about ecosystem restoration with UNEP’s Ecosystem Restoration Playbook, a practical guide to healing our planet.

Stay up-to-date with global events ahead of World Environment Day here and join #GenerationRestoration so that you too can be part of the solution.

Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture alone being the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86 per cent) species at risk of extinction.

As we embark on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which kicks off on World Environment Day on June 5, we need to reimagine our food systems so that, in future, farming can be nature-friendly and regenerative. You can read more about how to achieve this in this Chatham House report, Food Systems Impacts on Biodiversity Loss.

This issue will be front-and-centre on June 3 during a national dialogue on ecosystem restoration organised by SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Advocacy Component, alongside UNEP’s regional office for Asia and Pacific and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

During the hybrid event (online and in person), academics, national government and international organisations will share knowledge on the connections between sustainable consumption and production and ecosystem restoration and showcase good practices from the private sectors, civil society, women, and youth groups.

In China, farmland is facing multiple challenges, including food security risk, ecosystem degradation, reduction of cultivated land, and climate change, due to the rapid industrialization, urbanization, and increased population. Restoring agricultural ecosystems through nature-based solutions, such as using crop rotations, and growing more diverse crops and integrating them with livestock, has the potential to boost farm productivity.

Speakers will include Mei Feng, programme officer for the European Union delegation to China, Qian Wang, programme management officer at UNEP China and Yongguan Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

What: Ecosystem Restoration and Sustainable Food Production and Consumption

When: 3 June 2021 | 14:00-16:30 Beijing Time (GMT)+8

Where: Event Link here

Find all the details here.

Find out more with UNEP’s Ecosystem Restoration playbook, a practical guide to healing the planet.

Keep up-to-date with all the events leading up to World Environment Day with the official events schedule here and be part of #GenerationRestoration.

 

 

 

 

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Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5 and the official launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, representatives from UN agencies, the private sector, NGOs and government will take part in this Restore Our Earth event, organised by UNEP China and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to share best practices on ecosystem restoration.

The panel event will look in particular at recently announced ecosystem restoration regulations for China’s two main rivers -- the Yangtze River and the Yellow River -- with government representatives giving details on implementation. A representative from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Committee will discuss how 2.02 million square meters of ecological restoration has been completed in the Games' Yanqing competition zone.

There will also be representatives from China’s private sector, including from Tianying Inc, Elion Group and Bytedance. Speakers will include Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in China; Tu Ruihe, Head of UNEP China Office and Zhang Zhongjun, Assistant Representative of the FAO in China.

What: Restore our Earth event.

When: June 2; 10:00-12:00 GMT (+8 Beijing)

Where: Watch the feed here.

More details here.

Keep up-to-date with the official events ahead of World Environment Day on June 5 here.

Learn more about the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration here.

UNEP’s Faith for Earth Initiative is uniting religions around the world to focus on environmental issues. Faith-based organizations have unparalleled reach and mobilizing power because of the sheer number of their adherents in every corner of the world -- even in remote areas where the fight against environmental degradation will be won or lost. They have enormous potential to influence policy and address the planet’s environmental challenges.

Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, the United Religions Initiative (URI) will hold a ceremony to recognise Faith for Earth Councillors in India and discuss their plans for ecosystem restoration.

URI is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world.

The Faith for Earth Councillors has learned how to organise communities and craft solutions to specific environmental challenges by weaving together faith teachings, the Sustainable Development Goals and location-specific environment education.

UNEP India launched its Faith for Earth Strategy & Action Plan on World Environment Day in 2020. It was the first country to adopt a structured approach for collaboration with faith-based organisations.

Join this event to find out more.

When: June 3; 10:30 am IST; 8 am EAT

Find more details here and register for this event.

Read more about the Faith for Earth Initiative here.

Keep up-to-date with the official events ahead of World Environment Day on June 5 here.

Learn more about the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration here.

Check out UNEP’s Ecosystem Restoration Playbook to find out what needs to be done and follow #GenerationRestoration here.

As the world prepares for the formal launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration on World Environment Day on June 5, news has broken that three giant otter cubs have been born in Iberá Park, northeastern Argentina after the species was reintroduced to the area as part of an ambitious rewilding programme.

The programme, run by Rewilding Argentina, the strategic partner of Tompkins Conservation, marks the first attempt to return the giant river otter to a habitat where humans have caused its disappearance. Since giant river otters live and hunt in large family groups, their release into the protected Iberá wetlands has been contingent on their forming a family.

“These three cubs represent a future where human communities and the natural world can thrive together. As we enter the UN Decade on Ecosystems Restoration, I strongly believe that our most urgent task is helping nature heal. Rewilding puts us on that path,” said Kristine Tompkins, President of Tompkins Conservation and a United Nations Patron of Protected Areas.

Read more about the birth of the cubs here and the comeback of the giant otter.

And here’s another story about the return of jaguars to the Iberá wetlands.

Scientists say the next ten years will count most in the fight to avert climate change and the loss of millions of species. We must urgently make peace with nature, and rewilding is an important element of ecosystem restoration.

Everyone has a part to play in resetting our relationship with nature. Check out UNEP’s Ecosystem Restoration Playbook here for a practical guide to healing the planet and click here to find out more about the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Follow all the official events leading up to World Environment Day here, and join #GenerationRestoration by registering your own event.

Now more than ever, we need to make peace with nature. This is the moment for us all to come together and reimagine the world in which we live. Given the deep pain of the past year, this World Environment Day on June 5 is a good time to revisit how we can move forward to restore our communities, our ecosystems, and our climate, especially since it also marks the official start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

To mark this moment, a virtual celebration of restoration and recovery will bring together musicians, poets, thought leaders, politicians and youth activists on June 4 to inspire people around the globe to discover ways in which they can step up and take action.

Among those taking part will be UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen; UN Goodwill Ambassadors and musicians Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson, Indigenous activist Pennie Opal Plant and youth poet Jordan Sanchez, whose special spoken word poem for World Environment Day is here.

What: Virtual Celebration for Restoration and Recovery UNEP North America

When: June 4; 3 pm (EST)

For more details, a full list of performers and streaming details, click here.

This virtual celebration is organised by UNEP’s North America Office, 350.org and Pathway to Paris.

Follow all the events leading up to World Environment Day here and find out how you can be part of #GenerationRestoration. Because the planet needs all of us.

Faith and community leaders have been recognized as pivotal in protecting the environment and taking climate action. Their responsiveness is crucial, especially at the local level and with other faith actors.

A webinar -- Restoring the Planet: Faith Drives Urgent Action -- organised by UNEP’s Faith for Earth Initiative and the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) will hear from indigenous activists, telling their stories and talking of their personal journeys to change.

The panel will also discuss how religious actors can carve a constructive path forward to restore our environment, and look at how faith leaders can support policymakers in developing long-lasting, sustainable relationships between communities and nature.

Speakers will include Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UNEP Deputy Executive Director, Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, founder of Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth and Lucy Mulenkei, Executive Director of Indigenous Information Network.

When: June 3; 3 pm CEST

Find out more here and sign up to join this webinar.

Faith leaders and indigenous communities embrace a spiritual responsibility to protect our planet and drive urgent actions in many places to restore degraded forests, clean up rivers and coasts, and green cities. As such, they will have a key role to play in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which launches officially on World Environment Day, June 5.

Get involved and be part of #GenerationRestoration here.