2019 was a landmark year for both international and corporate commitments to restoration, as the U.N. adopted the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which will run from 2021 to 2030, and fresh momentum has been built toward promoting investments in sustainable land use. At the local and regional levels, too, Indigenous peoples and local communities have taken restoration into their own hands as both a means of subsistence and as a bulwark against the climate crisis. This week, we take a look back at the top Landscape News stories on restoration from 2019.
The Everglades, forever more
In the U.S. state of Florida, the story of how a half-century of wetland dredging and diking was reversed in one of the world’s most ambitious restoration projects.
Landscapes 101: Get briefed on our planet’s ecosystems
What exactly are peatlands and rangelands? A series of primers on planet’s major ecosystems, the challenges they face, and why they matter.
How to turn your backyard into a carbon sink
Landscapes meet landscaping in this DIY guide to replacing a manicured lawn with a thriving ecosystem in your own back garden.
Molly Burhans on how to reduce the separation of church and Earth
Catholic cartographer Molly Burhans explains how she uses digital mapping to help the Church expand its conservation efforts.
Here stands the Great Green Wall
An in-depth look at the progress and holdbacks of Africa’s Great Green Wall, another one of history’s most ambitious restoration efforts.
The take-off of the drone in conservation
How drone technology is being increasingly used to detect illegal poaching and logging, calculate carbon storage and even plant seeds from the air.
It takes a village to restore Africa’s degraded land
A journey to the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where local communities are working together with international NGOs to restore degraded lands.
U.N. declares 2021 to 2030 ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’
Arguably the biggest news of the year for restoration, as the U.N. General Assembly commits to mobilizing resources for restoring the planet’s degraded landscapes.
New U.N. decade to combat the ‘era’ of climate change, with optimism
El Salvador’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Lina Pohl gives the inside line on how the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration came to be.
Urban wetlands: Now coming to a city near you
From flood protection to drinking water, wetlands provide a wide variety of ecosystem services to cities around the world. After centuries of having drained their wetlands to make room for infrastructure, more and more cities are now starting to restore them.
What are we doing to protect blue spaces?
U.N. Special Envoy for the Ocean and Fiji native Peter Thomson on the state of ocean conservation, the role of the private sector, and our limited knowledge of what lies underneath the waves.
