ILC partners with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
As we come together to restore the world’s ecosystems, finding solutions that can safeguard the wellbeing of both people and the planet, the International Land Coalition is proud to announce its partnership with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
The Decade will be launched June 5th on World Environment Day and will run until 2030, just in time for the deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean.
At ILC, we recognise the UN Decade as a venue of change. But we won’t stop there. As a supporting partner, we’re committed to ensuring that the voices of local communities and indigenous peoples are given a platform to share with the world their community-led restoration initiatives - agro-ecological practices, community-led forest and rangelands management. More often than not, these sustainable practices are not recognised and hardly taken into account in policy and regulation.
Globally, the planet continues to lose forest cover roughly the size of the United Kingdom each year. Yet, across the globe, forests that have been given over to the custodianship of local communities see not only increased economic opportunities, but better protection. Just think, in the Brazilian Amazon the deforestation rate is 11 times lower in Indigenous Peoples’ and community forests.
This tells us that securing land rights of these groups is crucial to restoring ecosystems. And yet many communities all over the world are still denied ownership of and access to their land. By coming behind the efforts of local land users, defenders and their communities, ILC is ensuring that both our ecosystems and the people who depend on them can continue to thrive.
“ILC members are in the frontline of protecting the ecosystems upon which they depend. Recognising their tenure rights significantly reduces levels of deforestation. It’s a win for the planet, but it’s also simply the right thing to do - it’s their land.” - Annalisa Mauro, Network and Operations Coordinator, ILC.
Inadequate land tenure rights, unequal land distribution and economic pressure on natural resources often translates into human rights violations. In 2019 alone, 212 land and environmental defenders were killed, an average of four every week.
These are the women, men and communities who put their lives on the line to protect, restore and care for our ecosystems and it’s our collective responsibility to ensure they have enough security over their land and natural resources to do what they do best, heal our planet.
Now it’s time to get to work to build together a just, equitable and sustainable future and planet.
Join the conversation on June 2nd
As supporting partner, ILC will host a launch event on June 2nd to look at how securing land rights of local communities and indigenous peoples will help achieve the Decade’s goal of healing the planet in 10 years. Community and indigenous peoples’ representatives will share their stories, and current data on the risks community and indigenous land and environmental defenders are faced with.
The global event will be followed by regional dialogues in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe, Middle east and North Africa, which will identify potential partnerships to contribute to the implementation of the UN Decade’s Strategy.
For more information on the event and to register, please visit: https://tockify.com/wed2021/detail/18/1622631600000