Ten flagship nature-restoring initiatives hailed by UN

Before a historic agreement to protect biodiversity was sealed at the COP15 summit in Montreal on Monday, the United Nations identified 10 flagship projects that have already been helping to restore nature across the world.

Together, the initiatives aim to restore more than 68 million hectares -- an area bigger than France -- and create nearly 15 million jobs, according to the UN.

Here are the 10 World Restoration Flagships unveiled by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration last week.

- Forest pact -

The Atlantic Forest once covered land stretching across Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, but only fragments remain after centuries of logging and agricultural and urban expansion.

Hundreds of organisations in these countries are participating in a decades-long effort to protect the forest. Some 700,000 hectares have already been restored, with the goal of hitting one million hectares by 2030 and 15 million by 2050, according to the UN.

- Seagrass -

Abu Dhabi is working to restore beds of seagrass, coral reefs and mangroves to safeguard the world's second-largest population of dugongs -- cousins of the manatee -- as well as many other plants and animals, including turtles, dolphins and some 500 species of fish.

About 7,500 hectares of this coastal region have been restored already, with another 4,500 hectares planned by 2030.

- Great Green Wall -

As climate change causes more frequent droughts and feeds the Sahara Desert's southward advance, the Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore savanna, grasslands and farmlands across the 8,000-kilometre (5,000-mile) belt of Africa known as the Sahel.

The African Union launched this initiative in 2007, aiming to create 100 million hectares of green land across 11 countries while creating 10 million jobs.

- Ganges River -

The Namami Gange initiative aims to cut pollution and rebuild forest cover for the 520 million people who live around the vast basin of the Ganges, India's holy river.

The Indian government has invested up to $4.25 billion so far, revitalising 1,500 kilometres of the 2,500-kilometre river and restoring 30,000 hectares of forest. The plan aims to restore 134,000 hectares by 2030.

- Mountains -

The UN also hailed initiatives to restore the ecosystems of mountainous regions in Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda and Rwanda, making them more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

With protected habitat, restored grasslands and expanded tree cover, animals like the endangered mountain gorilla, the ibex, snow leopards and brown bears are already bouncing back in these regions, the UN said.

- Low-lying islands -

As rising sea levels threaten the existence of Vanuatu, St Lucia and Comoros, the three low-lying island countries have launched their own efforts to clean rivers, restore coral reefs and plant mangrove forests.

UN Environment Programme director Inger Andersen hailed their efforts in a statement, saying the countries "are on the frontlines of the fight against climate change, a crisis which is not of their making."

- Central Asian steppes -

The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative in Kazakhstan is working to restore the vast steppes of Central Asia that are in decline due to overgrazing, conversion to arable land and climate change.

The steppe is home to the Saiga, a species of antelope whose population fell to 50,000 in 2006 due to hunting and habitat loss -- but grew to 1.3 million in 2022.

- Central American corridor -

A prolonged drought across Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama has devastated farms, sent families into poverty and caused a wave of migration.

The Central American Dry Corridor uses the planting of trees on previously deforested lands to trap moisture in the soil and shield crops, with a 2030 goal of restoring 100,000 hectares and creating 5,000 permanent jobs.

- Indonesian mangroves -

The "Building with Nature" initiative in the Demak district of the Indonesian island of Java uses fence-like structures to create the conditions for devastated mangrove forests to rebound naturally.

This helps the mangroves regrow with a survival rate of 70 percent along a 20-kilometre stretch of the coastline.

- China's mountain and rivers -

Combining 75 large-scale ecosystem restoration projects, the Shan-Shi initiative -- which translates to "mountains and rivers" -- is a China-wide effort to restore 10 million hectares of nature, with an estimated 3.5 million hectares already restored.

China aims to complete 50 projects that span 700 counties, creating 3.2 million jobs, ultimately benefiting an estimated 200 million people, the UN said.

Reactions to COP 15 deal
Montreal (AFP) Dec 19, 2022 - The COP15 in Montreal ended Monday with what many described as an historic agreement that aims to stop the destruction of nature and prevent a 6th mass extinction.

Here are the first reactions to the Kunming-Montreal Agreement:

Huang Ruqin, Chinese President of COP15

The chair of the COP15 nature summit, Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu, declared it a "historic step".

"We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us all to work together to hold and reverse biodiversity loss, to put biodiversity on the path of recovery for the benefit of all people in the world," Huang told the assembly.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday welcomed a "historic" international deal on saving the world's biodiversity, calling it "a roadmap to protect and restore nature".

"This agreement provides a good foundation for global action on biodiversity, complementing the Paris Agreement for Climate," the European Commission president said in a statement.

"Now the world has a double track of action for a sustainable global economy by 2050."

Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European Commissioner of the Environment

"DEAL," wrote Virginijus Sinkevicius on Twitter.

"Tonight, we make history at COP15."

Steven Guilbeault, the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Steven Guilbeault called it a "historic step."

"We did it," he wrote on Twitter.

"The world has come together to land a historic deal to protect nature and biodiversity."

Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International

Marco Lambertini called the agreement to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 "an exceptional feat" and a "win for planet and people."

"The agreement represents a major milestone for the conservation of our natural world, and biodiversity has never been so high on the political and business agenda, but it can be undermined by slow implementation and failure to mobilize the promised resources," he said, calling for an "immediate implementation" of the agreement, "no excuses, no delays."

Susan Lieberman, Vice President of international policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society

"The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is a compromise, and although it has several good and hard-fought elements, it could have gone further to truly transform our relationship with nature and stop our destruction of ecosystems, habitats, and species," said Susan Lieberman.

The International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity

In a statement, IIFB welcomes the agreement that includes "strong language on respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, spatial planning (Target 1), area based conservation (Target 3), customary sustainable use (Target 5 and 9), traditional knowledge (Goal C, Target 13 and 20) participation and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to lands, territories and resources (Target 22)."

Steffi Lemke, Germany's environment minister

"The Montreal decision opens a shield of protection for our vital resources. The international community decided to finally put an end to the extinction of species," Steffi Lemke said.

S.African army deploys to guard power plants amid energy crisis
Johannesburg (AFP) Dec 17, 2022
South Africa has begun deploying the military to protect the country's electricity plants as the long-running power crisis worsens, state-owned energy utility and the presidency said Saturday. Scheduled blackouts have burdened the continent's most industrialised country for several years, but got more frequent this year as power utility Eskom imposed many hours of electricity cuts daily. "Eskom can confirm that the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) is being deployed," the energy firm ... read more