Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet (Cameroon), honoured in the Inspiration and Action category, is a tireless advocate for the rights of women in Africa to secure land tenure, which is essential if they are to play a role in restoring ecosystems, fighting poverty and mitigating climate change. She is also leading efforts to influence policy on gender equality in forest management across 20 African countries.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) received close to 2,200 nominations for its annual Champions of the Earth award in 2022, a new record. The UN’s highest environmental honour recognizes individuals and organizations from a number of fields, including civil society, academia and the private sector, that are blazing a trail in their efforts to protect our natural world.
To highlight the importance of ecosystem restoration, nominations of pioneers whose transformative action is healing our planet were encouraged, affirming that humanity has the ingenuity and ambition to protect the environment and reverse ecosystem degradation. This follows last year’s official launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a rallying call to urgently protect and revive ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. This year’s laureates will be announced on 22 November 2022.
Ecosystems support all life on Earth yet face grave threats. Every year the planet loses forest cover equivalent to the size of Portugal, with disastrous consequences for the climate crisis and biodiversity. Oceans are being polluted and overfished, with 11 million tonnes of plastic ending up in marine environments annually.
Yet the challenge is not insurmountable. People around the world are stepping forward every day to pioneer innovative ways to restore nature and secure a healthy planet for future generations. The Champions of the Earth are helping to lead that push. Their initiatives confront the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste. They are a reminder that environmental sustainability is key to achieving sustainable development.
The Champions of the Earth award will celebrate visionaries in three categories:
The award recognizes individuals and groups who are taking transformative action to change the world. To date, 106 laureates, ranging from heads of state to community activists, to captains of industry, to pioneering scientists, have been honoured as Champions of the Earth. Last year’s laureates included Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, The Sea Women of Melanesia, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka from Uganda and Maria Kolesnikova from the Kyrgyz Republic.
In April 2022, Sir David Attenborough was recognized with the prestigious Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement award.
UNEP coordinates and hosts the Champions of the Earth award. UNEP’s reputation as the global, non-partisan authority on environmental issues is built from 50 years of ground-breaking scientific research that informs global environmental policy.
About the UNEP Champions of the Earth
UNEP’s Champions of the Earth honours individuals, groups, and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. The annual Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector.
About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
In 1987, the world came together to sign the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer. The accord was designed to phase out a host of chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), that were creating a continent-sized hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica.
Today, the ozone layer is healing, shielding the planet from the potentially devastating effects of ultraviolet radiation.
But while it may have slipped from the headlines, the ozone layer still remains under pressure, said Meg Seki, Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat under the United Nations Environment Programme.
“People tend to assume that the ozone hole is history, that we’ve done our job. Actually, we have a lot of challenges still ahead of us.”
In the lead up to the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, which falls on 16 September, we spoke with Seki about the perils facing the Earth’s sun shield and whether the Montreal Protocol can be a template for fighting climate change.
The Montreal Protocol has been called one of the most successful global environmental agreements in history. Why?
Meg Seki (MS): The Montreal Protocol is so significant because it successfully tackled an emerging environmental catastrophe. When scientists alerted the world that there was a gaping hole in the ozone layer due to man-made chemicals emitted into the atmosphere, political and environmental leaders came together to address the problem. Today, more than 99 per cent of ozone-depleting substances have been phased out and the ozone layer is on a path to recovery.
What is the size of the hole in the ozone layer now compared to 1987?
MS: Because of the annual variability, the size of the hole goes up and down depending on the temperature in the stratosphere. So, we cannot predict this in advance but there’s a gradual but definite trend towards recovery.
How long until the hole is no more?
MS: Scientists estimate that the hole in the ozone layer will be no more by the 2060s. However, it’s very difficult to talk about complete recovery because the atmosphere itself is very different to what it was when there was no ozone depletion. Greenhouse gases, temperature changes and global warming all affect the dynamics and chemical processes in the atmosphere, impacting the recovery process. In other parts of the stratosphere, the ozone layer recovery is expected to be earlier.
Does climate change threaten to undo some of the progress we’ve made in repairing the ozone layer?
MS: This is a very complex issue. Ozone-depleting substances controlled by the Montreal Protocol are potent greenhouse gases that cause climate change, but we have managed to control and phase out their emissions. Climate change itself is causing changes in atmospheric circulation and temperature, which affect the depletion and recovery of the ozone layer.
The presence of greenhouse gases, such as nitrous oxide, and other pollutants in the stratosphere are also impacting ozone layer depletion. The Scientific Assessment Panel, one of three assessment panels under the Montreal Protocol, is constantly reviewing the state of the ozone layer and monitors the trends of ozone depleting substances and other gases in the atmosphere. The panel also looks into the linkages between stratospheric ozone changes and climate.
There are other challenges, too. The Montreal Protocol includes exemptions for some chemicals that may deplete the ozone layer. Other known ozone-depleting substances, like nitrous oxide, aren’t covered at all. Is it fair to say that the ozone layer isn’t out of the woods yet?
MS: Yes. Because of the Montreal Protocol’s success there’s been a lot of news about the ozone layer healing itself, which is great. But people now assume that the ozone hole is history, that we’ve done our job. Actually, we have a lot of challenges still ahead of us. First and foremost, we have the Kigali Amendment implementation to phase down HFCs and address energy efficiency improvements, especially in the cooling sector. Parties are also phasing out the remaining HCFCs and reducing the exempted uses where they can. Parties have also been looking into the sound destruction of banks of ozone-depleting substances that remain in end-of-life cooling equipment and buildings. Furthermore, although, nitrous oxide is not controlled by the Montreal Protocol parties are interested in understanding the magnitude of its impact on the ozone layer to see if any action needs to be taken.
How has the Montreal Protocol contributed to biodiversity?
MS: It’s clear that protecting the ozone layer meant protecting all life on Earth: ecosystems, human health, agriculture, wildlife – you name it we protect it. Without the ozone layer, too much harmful UVB radiation would have reached the Earth’s surface. This would have been bad news. Increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation can cause skin cancer and eye cataracts, and damage crops, plants and micro-organisms, affecting ecosystems and food chains.
What lessons from the Montreal Protocol can be applied to tackling climate change?
MS: Ozone depleting substances were widely used in many sectors of our economy – cooling, electronics, firefighting, aerosols, medicine… and as fumigants in agriculture. Innovative measures and mechanisms were needed to ensure that the ozone-depleting substances that had become so essential to human life could be eliminated without disrupting the functioning of society.
To make this happen, all countries, developed and developing, collaborated in a global partnership, also with the full cooperation of industries and other stakeholders, to meet their respective responsibilities. The success of the Montreal Protocol should give us hope and some good lessons learned for tackling other global environmental issues, including climate change and the sustainable development agenda.
For more information, visit the United Nations Environment Programme Ozone Secretariat
The theme of this year’s International Day of Clean Air for blue skies on 7 September – the Air We Share - focuses on the need for collective action to address air pollution, which respects no national borders.
Polluted air comes from many sources – from cookstoves and kerosene lamps to coal-fired power plants, vehicle emissions, agricultural waste burning, industrial furnaces and wildfires. It has been called the biggest environmental health risk of our time, prematurely killing an estimated 7 million people every year. Air pollution is also fundamentally altering the Earth’s climate and contributing to biodiversity loss and other types of pollution.
Many individuals and organizations are fighting to ensure the air humanity breathes is clean. One of them is Maria Kolesnikova, Chairperson of MoveGreen, a youth-led movement working to improve air quality in the Kyrgyz Republic and the wider Central Asia region.
Kolesnikova, 2021 United Nations Champion of the Earth for Entrepreneurial Vision, started advocating for the right to a healthy environment after seeing a photo of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek enveloped in smog. Not a single familiar landmark nor any signs of life - cars, shops, schools - were visible in the image, which horrified her.
Home to about one million people, Bishkek is amongst cities with the worst air pollution in the world. During winter months, it is often trapped under a dome of haze caused by burning coal, garbage incineration and vehicle emissions.
“We wanted to understand more about what was in the air that we were breathing, and what data the city was collecting in order to try and make things better,” said Kolesnikova. “But we didn’t find any relevant, actual data – either it was not being collected or it was not being shared. So, we decided to collect the data ourselves.”
Measuring air quality is crucial
When MoveGreen started to collect data on air pollution, it had only three sensors to measure air quality. Now it has over 100 installed in Bishkek and the region to monitor levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) produced by burning coal and other fuels, combustion, and dust.
Under Kolesnikova, MoveGreen developed the AQ.kg app, which collects data on the concentration of pollutants in the air, including PM2.5, PM10 and nitrogen dioxide. Air quality data is now available from almost a dozen cities across the country, including Bishkek, Osh and Jalal-Abad. By September 2022, MoveGreen expects the app to cover all regions of the Kyrgyz Republic, helping more people to make decisions about their daily activities, such as whether to go out or stay indoors. MoveGreen is also promoting environmental awareness across the country and advocates for more and bolder environmental-friendly policies.
Recognizing the threat air pollution poses between neighbouring countries, Kolesnikova and MoveGreen set up the Central Asian Air Quality Platform, bringing together government representatives, scientists, civil society and journalists from across Central Asia to collaborate on ways to tackle air pollution in the region’s growing cities. It is already working on a research database providing information on air pollution in Central Asia.
“Contaminated air poses a serious threat to the health of inhabitants of large cities in Central Asia and is one of the most pressing problems in the region,” Kolesnikova said.
According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in September 2021, Central Asian countries saw a rise in PM2.5 and ammonia emissions between 2010 and 2017. In February 2022, UNEP called on partners to work together to support the Kyrgyz Republic’s transition away from coal, which more than 70 per cent of the population rely on to keep their homes warm in winter.
Equipping young people with knowledge
Kolesnikova’s work with MoveGreen is driven by the desire to protect the health of citizens and work toward a better future for children and young people in the Kyrgyz Republic. In Bishkek, sensors were installed in schools to measure air quality so classrooms can keep their windows closed when air pollution is high. MoveGreen’s flagship initiative, “School Breathes Easily”, uses lectures and laboratory experiments to educate children about the importance of clean air.
Globally, 1 billion children are highly exposed to exceedingly high levels of air pollution that puts their health and development at risk. “It’s up to children and the young generation to decide which kind of world they want to live in. That’s why it’s very important for us to educate them on how to act, what to do,” Kolesnikova said. “Positive change starts from one person – it can start from you.”
Every year, on 7 September, the world celebrates the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies. The day aims to raise awareness and facilitate actions to improve air quality. It is a global call to find new ways of doing things, to reduce the amount of air pollution we cause, and ensure that everyone, everywhere can enjoy their right to breathe clean air. The theme of the third annual International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, facilitated by UNEP, is “The Air We Share.”
UNEP’s Champions of the Earth honours individuals and organisations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. The annual Champions of the Earth award is the United Nation’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector. This year’s laureates will be announced in late 2022.
In the Peruvian city of Ayacucho, the indigenous Quechua people have a tradition known as chirapaq. As the red-orange glow of the setting sun gives way to a deep blue twilight, the Quechua look to the heavens in the hopes that two stars will collide to birth a sparkling, star-filled skyscape.
For some Quechua, the celestial renaissance is an allegory representing the hope that indigenous cultures around the world will return to prominence, in many cases after generations of repression.
There’s a growing realization among environmental advocates that the spread of indigenous practices is also crucial to the planet’s future. An emerging body of research suggests that traditional techniques, some millennia old, for growing food, controlling wildfires and conserving endangered species could help arrest the dramatic decline of the natural world.
“We must preserve and strengthen indigenous practices, which contribute to sustainable environmental management and provide leadership in combating climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste,” says Siham Drissi, a Programme Management Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “It must be preserved and enhanced."
In December, governments from around the world will gather at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, to agree on a new set of goals that will guide global actions on nature through 2030. The framework acknowledges the important roles and contributions of indigenous people and local communities as stewards of nature and partners in its conservation, restoration and sustainable use.
The world’s indigenous population comprises some 476 million people living across 90 countries and representing 5,000 different cultures. They manage an estimated 25 per cent of Earth’s land mass, which accounts for 40 per cent of all ecologically intact landscapes.
Yet indigenous peoples are arguably among the world’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups due to systemic marginalization. They’re almost three times as likely to live in extreme poverty than non-indigenous people, and they account for 15 per cent of the world’s poorest.
Despite that, in many parts of the world, indigenous communities are at the forefront of conservation, according to a 2021 report supported in part by UNEP. Many are specialists at living in fragile ecosystems and managing limited biodiversity.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, the Bambuti-Babuluko community is helping to protect one of Central Africa’s last remaining tracts of primary tropical forest. In Iran, the semi-nomadic Chahdegal Balouch oversee 580,000 hectares of fragile scrubland and desert. And in Canada’s far north, Inuit leaders are working to restore caribou herds, whose numbers had been in steep decline.
In areas like Australia and South America, indigenous land management, including slow-burning and purposefully set brush fires are considered key to preventing large-scale wildfires, which in many places could become more common as the climate becomes hotter and drier.
“Indigenous fire is about burning in a way that supports healthy culture, ecosystems and society,” says Oliver Costello, Director of the Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation in Australia. “More socio-political change and investment is required to properly implement indigenous fire and land management in Australia and beyond to realize the potential of indigenous custodianship and knowledge in practice.”
Tending to traditional knowledge
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, requires all entities to obtain free, prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples before engaging in activities that impact their rights, survival, dignity and well-being. The declaration posits that interactions must occur on indigenous peoples’ time frames and in indigenous languages.
To that end, 2022 marks the start of the UN’s Decade of Indigenous Languages, which emphasizes the importance of enabling indigenous languages in justice systems, the media, labour and health programmes. Given the importance of oral traditions in passing down environmental management practices and indigenous knowledge, experts say the preservation of language and customs is of the utmost importance.
At the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly earlier this year, Member States adopted a key resolution that focuses on deploying nature to find solutions for sustainable development. The resolution calls on UNEP to support the implementation of such solutions, which safeguard the rights of communities and indigenous peoples.
UNEP also has a policy that aims to protect environmental defenders through denouncing attacks, torture, intimidation and murder while advocating for better protection of environmental rights.,
Recognition and respect
“Indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge has informed how to practically ensure the balance of the environment in which they live so it may continue to provide essential services – such as water, fertile soil, food, shelter, medicines – to all life forms,” says Drissi.
The Stockholm+50 conference in early June strongly positioned indigenous peoples, who produced a declaration calling for “an effective and immediate mainstreaming of [indigenous] scientific knowledge into all relevant decisions and actions to address” the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
The declaration also highlights the plight of indigenous women, who have particularly high levels of poverty, limited access to health and economic services, and often suffer from institutional, domestic, political and sexual violence.
“Indigenous women face a triple risk: being a woman, being indigenous and being an environmental defender,” said Drissi. “They safeguard the biodiversity of our ecosystems and transmit ancestral and indigenous knowledge, languages and worldviews. However, indigenous women and girls are too often stigmatized, harassed, criminalized, tortured or killed for defending their land and rivers, their cultural heritage, life in their territories and beyond.”
Tarcila Rivera Zea, a Quechua activist from Ayacucho who’s dedicated over 30 years to defending and advocating for indigenous cultures and peoples, says stronger action and recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights is needed.
“It is critical that indigenous women are recognized in our full capacities, above all, as bearers of knowledge and in our role of producers within indigenous families,” says Rivera. “The violence that comes from outside has much to do with the denial of our collective and individual human rights.”
Such mainstreaming requires the development of true partnerships, experts say.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), a professional body that ensures funds of Norwegian development aid contribute to global development, was among the participants in discussions with indigenous peoples at the Stockholm +50 conference.
“Indigenous peoples must be at the center of the table in the climate and environment debates, because indigenous peoples are the real experts,” says Stig Ingemar Traavik, Director of Climate, Energy and Environment at Norad. “They already have many of the solutions we are looking for, and we need to listen and learn.”
The Dushanbe Declaration, adopted this year as part of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development, upholds the critical role of women, youth, indigenous peoples, local communities, and other major stakeholder groups in water governance at all levels.
“We must increase recognition of such practices and foster respectful dialogue in an ethical space between scientific and policy spheres with indigenous peoples,” says Yolanda Lopez-Maldonado, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Affairs Officer at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). “Such ethical space is where indigenous knowledge can be appropriately shared and carefully handled and received. If this space is never created, the erosion of indigenous knowledge will continue.”
But increased recognition must be complemented by action. For Rivera, that takes the form of training a new generation of indigenous women leaders.
“There is always optimism and a lot of hope to achieve respect based on rights, and we put all our efforts into it,” she says. “With information, training and access to appropriate tools, I am sure that the new generation will achieve greater things and understand that global decisions have implications in local contexts.”
Contact Information: To learn more, please contact Siham Drissi
From December 7-19, countries will meet in Montreal for COP 15 to strike a landmark agreement to guide global actions on biodiversity. The framework will need to lay out an ambitious plan that addresses the key drivers of biodiversity loss and puts us on the path to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.
See UNEP’s COP 15 page for more information and the latest updates.
Fly over the crystal blue waters of the South Pacific archipelago of Palau, and in many places you may notice something unusual: a total lack of fishing boats.
In 2015, Palau designated 193,000 square miles of its maritime territory a protected reserve, where no fishing can take place.
While that has helped protect marine life, it has created a challenge. How can the country ensure its focus on conservation does not come at the expense of job creation and economic growth?
Palau, with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is examining one possible solution: aquaculture.
While the cultivation of both aquatic plants and animals in many places has become a blight on the environment, in Palau officials are hoping to build an environmentally friendly aquaculture industry, one that will provide jobs and ensure the country’s 18,000 residents are not totally reliant on wild fish stocks.
Palau’s aquaculture industry has huge potential, says Tsunghan Lin, an aquaculture specialist who works for the Palau government. But it is still nascent. There are only two commercial scale aquaculture farms, which produce fish for bait, and eleven fish farms at sea, Lin says.
Palau is not the only country grappling with how to protect fish stocks while also safeguarding fishers’ livelihoods and the marine biodiversity that underpins coastal tourism.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, up to 10 per cent of the global population relies on fisheries for their livelihood. Yet in 2019, one-third of the world’s fish stocks were overfished, up from 10 per cent in the mid-1970s, while another 60 per cent have been exploited at their maximum sustainable limit.
Aquaculture has grown hugely in the past three decades and now provides half of all fish for human consumption. Global aquaculture production more than tripled to 112 million tonnes in 2017 from 34 million tonnes in 1997, says Sang Jin Lee, Task Manager within the UNEP- Global Environment Fund Biodiversity Unit.
By 2030, aquaculture could produce nearly two-thirds of the fish consumed globally.
And with the world’s population expected to grow from 7.96 to 9.8 billion by 2050, food security will continue to be a vital global issue.
Aquaculture is not just about the production of food: it also generates products used in food processing, feed, fuels, cosmetics, and a variety of other industrial products.
“Over the past 20 years, aquaculture has evolved from having a relatively minor role to playing a mainstream part in the global food system,” Sang Jin Lee says.
But aquaculture is not without its problems.
Much of the aquaculture practiced across the world causes pollution, leads to disease outbreaks and degrades coastlines, Sang Jin Lee says.
Aquaculture farms can vary hugely in size, from the Salmars Ocean Farm off the coast of Norway, which can hold 3 million salmon, to small, freshwater farms in earthen ponds, which hold hundreds of fish.
In 2022, UNEP designed a national project funded by the Global Environment Facility to strengthen aquaculture policy, planning and management in Palau.
The country has one of the most biologically diverse underwater ecosystems globally, yet unsustainable development practices, the impacts of climate change, overharvesting of natural resources, and ongoing expansion of tourism represent significant threats to Palau’s environmental quality and biodiversity. “Many of the human-induced ecosystem changes currently occurring on and around these fragile islands are irreversible,” Sang Jin Lee adds.
These issues extend to the country’s aquaculture industry, which according to Sang Jin Lee, has suffered from limited planning, capacity, and coordination. “This has often resulted in unintended ecosystem impacts, and mismatches in seedling production, needs, and sites for aquaculture farms,” he says.
The UNEP-led project will guide the development of the aquaculture sector to complement Palau’s legacy of marine biodiversity conservation.
“When developed responsibly, aquaculture represents a significant opportunity to simultaneously meet the three pillars of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: ending poverty and hunger and promoting prosperity, while protecting the planet from degradation,” says Sang Jin Lee.
About 0.1 per cent of the ocean’s floor is covered in lanky green flowering plants known as seagrasses.
Their often-sprawling meadows purify ocean water, shelter fish and provide food for thousands of marine species. But seagrass habitats have been in decline since 1930, with 7 per cent of them disappearing each year, according to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) research.
Along with being a haven for marine life, seagrass sediment is one of the planet’s most efficient carbon stores and prevents it from becoming a planet-warming greenhouse gas.
Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, a one-time coordinator of a European Union-UNEP project, have discovered how seagrasses store carbon.
The research shows that seagrasses convert organic carbon into large amounts of sugar during photosynthesis, mainly sucrose. Globally, seagrasses have produced between 0.6 and 1.3 million tonnes of these sugars. This is comparable to the amount of sugar in 32 billion cans of Coke.
Microorganisms usually quickly consume such sugars for food, energy and growth processes that convert the sugars into CO2 and return them to the ocean and atmosphere.
However, seagrasses excrete compounds – also found in red wine, coffee and fruit –that deter the microorganisms from consuming the sucrose. This ensures that the sucrose remains buried underneath the meadows and cannot be converted into carbon dioxide and returned to the ocean and atmosphere.
“It adds another layer to our understanding of how seagrasses are such efficient carbon sinks,” said one of the researchers, Maggie Sogin, an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Merced.
“This study is important as it offers useful lessons to policymakers and communities, helping them understand seagrasses, an underappreciated marine ecosystem,” said Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator of the Marine and Freshwater Branch at UNEP. Given the sequestering power of seagrasses, Carvalho said they could play an essential role in helping countries achieve their targets under the Paris climate change agreement.
The study came out ahead of World Oceans Day. An annual event held on 8 June provides an opportunity to celebrate the importance of the underwater world and better understand how to interact with it sustainably. This year’s theme, Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean, puts a spotlight on ocean health, which experts say is at a tipping point.
The ocean, which covers more than 70 per cent of the planet, feeds billions, regulates the climate, and generates most of the oxygen we breathe. However, the ocean is threatened by climate change, plastic pollution, and overexploitation.
Seagrasses are found in shallow waters in 159 countries. They are increasingly imperilled by agricultural and industrial run-off, coastal development, rising sea temperatures due to climate change, unregulated fishing, and dredging, among other things. What would happen if such human activities destroyed seagrasses?
The research from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology shows that if microbes degraded the sucrose in the seagrass roots, at least 1.54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be released worldwide – an equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 330,000 cars in a year.
“This is our biggest fear,” said Sogin. “If all of the seagrasses were to disappear overnight, this would limit the ability of that ecosystem to store normally simple sugars and organic carbon. This could alter the delicate ecosystem dynamics found in our coastal waters.”
The study was carried out between 2016 and 2019 on Elba Island, Italy and the Carrie Bow Cay in Belize. Researchers hypothesise that other marine plants, including those in salt marshes, may also store sugar in their sediments.
Carvalho added, “As seagrasses are often overlooked, so too are the mesmerising and understated dugongs and manatees that call them home and rely on these meadows as a primary food source.”
There have been global efforts to map the socio-economic benefits of seagrasses and threats to them.
A new study from UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre has revealed that rising sea temperatures over the next 30 years will lead to seagrass loss in the coastal regions of Italy, Tunisia and Cyprus. The study shows that only small pockets in the south of France and the Turkish coast could “possibly escape major susceptibility to heatwaves.”
UNEP’s Out of the Blue: The Value of Seagrasses to the Environment and to People report makes recommendations on protecting and managing the habitat.
UNEP and its partners also recently launched a manual for community seagrass projects, which guides how to run a community-based seagrass conservation project.
World Oceans Day reminds every one of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. They are the lungs of our Planet and a major source of food and medicine and a critical part of the biosphere."Revitalization: collective action for the ocean" is the theme for World Oceans Day 2022, a year framed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the celebration of the United Nations Ocean Conference, two years after being cancelled because of the pandemic.
In everywhere from snowy Boreal forests to coral-studded Pacific coastlines, national parks, protected areas and traditional approaches are critical to conserving biodiversity. But shielding pristine habitats and endangered species is no longer enough to halt the rapid loss of nature.
That is why governments and experts are urgently preparing a comprehensive new global framework for biodiversity. Amid a raft of measures, including more protection, the framework is expected to include a drive to restore ecosystems of all kinds around the world.
Restoration is already on the rise since last year’s launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Both the UN Decade and the new biodiversity framework will run through 2030. And the mutual benefits of conservation and restoration are already becoming clear.
Ahead of the International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May, five different restoration initiatives show how reviving ecosystems, conserving biodiversity, and building a sustainable future go hand-in-hand.
Let them inspire you to take action for biodiversity and join #GenerationRestoration.
Grasslands buzzing with life in Canada
A restoration project in Ontario, Canada is creating and enhancing more than 1,500 hectares of grassland ecosystems. The Grassland Stewardship Initiative aims to protect and recover threatened bird species, including bobolinks and meadowlarks, while improving the quality of the soil and its ability to capture carbon.
How you can help: Look for grasslands near you. Find out what species depend on them and whether their habitat is under threat.
Greening farms across Zambia
Agroforestry systems, which combine crops with trees, support biodiversity. Now hundreds of small farmers in Zambia’s Copperbelt province are receiving training and tools in return for letting indigenous trees grow on their land. The WeForest project provides families with better and more diversified livelihoods, such as beekeeping, which cuts their dependence on the charcoal business degrading local miombo woodlands.
How you can help: Find a corner of your garden, school grounds or local park where indigenous tree seedlings could be protected and nurtured.
Urban parks flourishing in Scotland
With 80 per cent of the global population expected to live in cities by 2050, the need to preserve, restore and create urban spaces for nature is urgent. A project in Glasgow, Scotland uses exhibits exploring 10,000 years of local history to entice visitors to the restored Seven Lochs Wetland Park. The 16km2 park aims to promote the heritage and well-being of local communities and become a haven for wildlife, from deer to damselflies.
How you can help: Join a community group helping manage a nearby park or a citizen science project mapping and monitoring the nature it contains.
Hope springs for coral reefs in Belize
Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots, food banks, storm barriers and tourist magnets all in one. To offset the damage from coral bleaching events, the Fragments of Hope project in southern Belize is regenerating its barrier reefs with species that can be resilient in the face of climate change. The initiative promotes the sustainable management of coastal habitats so the natural wonders that draw visitors and support local livelihoods can have a long-term future.
How you can help: For your next vacation or outing in the sea, check your sunscreen for the coral-friendly label, make sure you stay in designated areas and don’t forget to collect and sort your waste.
Regenerating peatlands in Borneo
Tropical peatland fires eliminate biodiversity while pumping vast quantities of climate-altering carbon into the atmosphere. Sebangau National Park in Borneo is home to clouded leopards, sun-bears and the world’s largest protected population of orangutans. To prevent fires here, the Borneo Nature Foundation is empowering communities to restore burnt peatlands by planting 1 million native trees and blocking drainage channels.
How you can help: Try to put only certified deforestation-free products on your shopping list as rainforests are cleared to produce global commodities like palm oil and animal feed.
Looking for more inspiration? Explore these 22 actions recommended by the Convention on Biological Diversity to commemorate World Biodiversity Day 2022 on 22 May.
Sir David Attenborough is awarded with the United Nations Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award by the UN Environment Programme Executive Director, Inger Andersen. In an exclusive interview, they discuss Sir David's life, the importance of restoring nature and how science can appeal to the hearts of people
Sir David Attenborough is awarded with the United Nations Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award by the UN Environment Programme Executive Director, Inger Andersen. In an exclusive interview, they discuss Sir David's life, the importance of restoring nature and how science can appeal to the hearts of people.
The Champions of the Earth award is the United Nation’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
