“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Ecosystem Restoration. Some say this is the work of our time: to restore the habitats and environments that sustain all life on this living planet. We live during a time where habitat loss, species extinction and pollution of the water, soil and air is at an all-time global crisis. There is no doubt that human industrialized activities are using more resources and producing waste products far faster than the Earth´s living systems are able to process at this time. The complex web of living organisms that hold the balance in place are under threat.
From mangrove swamp replanting projects, coral reef restoration, reforestation projects, holistic management and agro ecological farming practices to wildlife conservation, green corridors and rewilding projects – thousands of people all around the world are taking action to heal our planet.
Many projects are underway that aim to restore these natural ecosystems. You can watch and learn about some of the largest ones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpozw1CAxmU
CCIVS member organisations have projects all around the world that support the UN decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Oceans Decade.
Beach and River clean ups are being arranged globally by groups of people who get together to remove plastics and waste materials from waterways and beaches to enable the natural ecosystem to restore itself.
There are also many people using agroecological practices to restore environments while also producing food:
Permaculture : an ethical framework for holistic design
Holistic Management: mimics natural processes to increase carbon in the soil using intense and moving grazing livestock animals and natural diverse processes
Regenerative Agriculture: aims to rebuild soil biodiversity while producing food, using techniques that include diversification of crops, use of cover crops, natural living soil amendments that support soil microbiology and fungal network growth, minimum till and natural integrated pest management strategies.
Analogue Forestry: imitates the old grow forest patterns to include species that provide a yield for communities who live within these forest areas
Syntropic Agriculture: a layered and intercropped technique, that involves producing all natural inputs onsite by maximising photosynthetic processes using plants
Water retention landscaping: the work of Sepp Holtzer and his students to reshape landscapes to maximise the available water and heal the full water cycle . They advocate for using the last fossil fuel we have left to heal the Earth and the water cycle, so that other systems like soil loss, deforestation, etc can also be healed. Watch more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vik4vUN3SPI
This is by no means a complete list, and you are encouraged to research and join those in your local area taking action to restore biodiversity and life!