Time for a Major Reset: Restore and Reduce

© By Ariane Janér | March 2022

In 1937, when David Attenborough was a boy, the earth was populated by 2.3 billion people, there was still an estimated 66% of wilderness left and carbon emissions were at 280 ppm. By 1970, the Earth’s Bio Capacity was just enough to absorb the Human Ecological Footprint of 3.7 billion people. Carbon emissions had grown to  326 ppm. Since then we have increased our footprint overstepped the earth’s capacity. Today, with 7.8 billion people consuming more resources per capita than 50 years ago, there is just 35 percent of wilderness left, wild animals are just 4 % of animal biomass and carbon emissions are 415 ppm. We now use up all  the earth’s bio capacity in 8 months. And the effects of this are getting clearer and clearer. The latest 2021 report of the usefully careful  IPCC now says:

Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying” and finds that “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach”.

We urgently need to stop burning the candle at both ends. So apart from drastically reducing CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) emissions, we also need to restore the bio capacity of the earth. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. The focus is on restoring earth’s  bio capacity whilst reducing our footprint:

• Restoring the Planet includes “classical” conservation, restoration, regenerative agriculture and sustainable fishing. This way we hope to build up biocapacity.
• Reducing the Human Footprint  – Urban Areas, Transportation, Food. Where and how we live, move about and what we waste has a major impact on the size of our footprint. To bring this in line with biocapacity will require the political will to push people to make important behavioral changes.
• It is a big task. The UN calculates that between now and 2030, the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems could generate US$9 trillion in ecosystem services. Restoration could also remove 13 to 26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The economic benefits of such interventions exceed nine times the cost of investment, whereas inaction is at least three times more costly than ecosystem restoration.

Ecosystem Restoration is clearly linked to the aims and practices of ecotourism, but we do need to pay more attention to how to manage the travel-to-the destination footprint. We know that many of you are actively involved. The UN site shows little of this yet. So show up.

1. Get projects you are part of/partner with or projects you admire to show up as well.
2. Make sure that your present and future visitors also know you care and,
3. Show what you are doing to restore bio capacity and reduce footprint and teach them what they can do.

Sources to start with:

• A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future https://www.netflix.com/br-en/title/80216393
• Footprint Network: https://www.footprintnetwork.org/
• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/
• Atmospheric CO2 | March 1958 to Present | Mauna Loa Observatory https://www.co2.earth/monthly-co2
• Land Use https://ourworldindata.org/land-use

By Ariane Janér | March 2022