United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) delivers science-based solutions to halt and reverse the loss of nature while restoring ecosystems, which is essential to maintaining nature’s contributions to people, sustaining a healthy planet and mitigating climate change.
Our approach is focused on increasing ambition, building broad-based support and partnerships for transformational change for sustainable development.
We work with communities, businesses and governments around the world to provide sustainable solutions to the growing nature crisis. This includes work in mainstreaming biodiversity across key sectors, transitioning to sustainable food systems, bringing degraded ecosystems back to life and increasing ecosystem-based adaptation to combat climate change.
UNEP is taking significant action towards living in harmony with nature, with ecosystem integrity and conservation being leveraged as assets and tools for disaster risk reduction and greater social resilience on the path to 2030.
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem includes all living things in a given area, as well as their interactions with each other, and with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere). Each organism has a role to play and contributes to the health and productivity of the ecosystem as a whole.
What are ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services - or nature’s contributions to people - are the benefits that nature provides for free. Such benefits include the provision of food, water, energy and natural medicines, as well as fresh air, climate regulation and pollination critical to our food supply.
What does living in harmony with nature mean?
Living in harmony with nature means “maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”, as well as ensuring that “biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used” (SCBD, 2010). Protecting ecosystems and the diversity of life within them will set the world on a path towards ensuring poverty eradication, social resilience, green growth and an economic system that works in harmony with nature. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) consists of four overarching global goals and features 23 targets to achieve by 2030 to protect nature, reduce biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights.
