“Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration”

Compilation.

In 1972, the UN General Assembly designated 5 June as World Environment Day (WED). The first celebration, under the slogan “Only One Earth” took place in 1973. In the following years, WED has developed as a platform to raise awareness on the problems facing our environment such as air pollution, plastic pollution, illegal wildlife trade, sustainable consumption, sea-level increase, and food security, among others. Furthermore, WED helps drive change in consumption patterns and in national and international environmental policy.

In 1972, the UN General Assembly designated 5 June as World Environment Day (WED). The first celebration, under the slogan “Only One Earth” took place in 1973. In the following years, WED has developed as a platform to raise awareness on the problems facing our environment such as air pollution, plastic pollution, illegal wildlife trade, sustainable consumption, sea-level increase, and food security, among others. Furthermore, WED helps drive change in consumption patterns and in national and international environmental policy.

Every year, the program has provided a theme and forum for businesses, non-government organizations, communities, politicians, and stars to advocate environmental causes.

2024 Theme: Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience

The 2024 edition of World Environment Day will focus on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience, under the slogan “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration”, as the year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population, and threatening roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion). The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29% since 2000 – without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050.

Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Why the theme “land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.”?

Humanity depends on land. Yet, all over the world, a toxic cocktail of pollution, climate chaos, and biodiversity decimation are turning healthy lands into deserts, and thriving ecosystems into dead zones. They are annihilating forests and grasslands, and sapping the strength of land to support ecosystems, agriculture, and communities.

That means crops failing, water sources vanishing, economies weakened, and communities endangered – with the poorest hit hardest. Sustainable development is suffering. And we are trapped in a deadly cycle – land use is responsible for eleven percent of the carbon dioxide emissions heating our planet. It’s time to break free.

Countries must deliver on all their commitments to restore degraded ecosystems and land. They must use their new national climate action plans to set out how they will halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. And we must scale-up finance to support developing countries to adapt to violent weather, protect nature, and support sustainable development.

Inaction we cannot afford. Swift and effective action makes economic sense. Every dollar invested in ecosystem restoration creates up to thirty dollars in economic benefits.

We are Generation Restoration. Together, let’s build a sustainable future for land, and for humanity.

This World Environment Day, we are asking everyone to join the global movement to restore our lands, to build drought resilience and to combat desertification.  

 What are the effects of land degradation and how restoration would help?

Land degradation and desertification affect over three billion people.  Freshwater ecosystems are also degraded, making it harder to grow crops and to raise livestock. This disproportionately affects smallholder farmers and, of course, the rural poor.  

But nature is resilient.  

By restoring ecosystems, we can slow the triple planetary crisis: the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, including desertification, and the crisis of pollution and waste. 

We can help to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework. And we can get closer to limiting global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement by increasing carbon storage, including in the peatlands. We can reduce poverty and food insecurity, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Work has begun. 

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is backing commitments to restore one billion hectares of land, an area larger than China. 

Last year, six countries pledged to restore 300,000 kilometers of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands. At the sixth UN Environment Assembly in February, nations agreed to strengthen sustainable land management. And later this year, the three Rio Conventions – the one on climate, the one on biodiversity and the one on desertification – are each holding a Conference of Parties or COP to push further the ambitions of these conventions. 

Land restoration can be a golden thread that ties these together, ties together action and ambition across all these three important gatherings. 

Let us all commit our own role to help restoration of our land and plant trees and ensure that the environment is protected.