042 - Promoting IUCN leadership in the implementation of the UN Decade on Restoration 2021–2030
042 - Promoting IUCN leadership in the implementation of the UN Decade on Restoration 2021–2030
APPLAUDING the recent adoption of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 through UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/73/284, which is aimed at “supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of successful ecosystem restoration”;
AFFIRMING that the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 presents a major opportunity to restore ecosystems and to implement Nature-based Solutions as a key global strategy for addressing critical societal challenges such as human health, disaster risk reduction, climate-change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation, food and water security;
WELCOMING the commitment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to lead implementation of the Decade;
MINDFUL of the need to significantly increase conservation and protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, while recognising at the same time many lands and waters are increasingly degraded, and noting the opportunity that restoration of currently degraded ecosystems provides for meeting that need;
RECOGNISING the key role and value of international voluntary initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge, Global Mangrove Alliance, and Global Peatland Initiative in facilitating tangible bottom-up action for delivering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework;
HIGHLIGHTING that many ecosystem types currently do not receive sufficient attention and prioritisation, lack a target-setting framework and do not have coordinated communities of action to support implementation, capacity building and resource mobilisation;
NOTING Resolutions 6.045 Protection of primary forests including intact forest landscapes and 6.075 Affirmation of the role of indigenous cultures in global conservation efforts (Hawai‘i, 2016); and
EMPHASISING that in order to optimise the conservation and societal benefits that can accrue from the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 there is a need to promote the use of credible and proven ecosystem restoration approaches;
1. DECLARES its support and commitment for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 aiming at supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, bring to a halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide ;
2. REQUESTS the Director General to promote implementation of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030, in the context of the IUCN Programme 2021–2024, by:
a. championing the raising of ambition on ‘ecosystem restoration’ across a full range of ecosystem types, in line with the CBD post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and ensuring that ecosystem services are also restored;
b. advising and assisting governments and stakeholders in the development of effective and efficient ecosystem management strategies, plans and policies;
c. facilitating engagement, integration, cooperation and synergies among bottom-up communities of action working on restoration of specific ecosystem types;
d. providing assistance to governments and other stakeholders in effectively tracking, monitoring and adaptively managing ecosystem restoration using IUCN and partner tools and knowledge, while championing and supporting the leadership, knowledge and good practices of indigenous peoples and local communities in conserving and restoring land, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems; and
e. developing an open knowledge platform, building on best practices, to share lessons learned about sustainable management and restoration by ecosystem type, to track progress and to facilitate quantitative meta-analysis of sustainable management and restoration effectiveness and effects;
3. ENCOURAGES all Members to take bold action within their mandates and in their work to scale up efforts to prevent, bring to a halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems at all scales, contributing to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030;
4. INVITES all Members to identify and develop activities for the implementation of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030; and
5. INVITES governments and all stakeholders to meaningfully address the drivers of ecosystem degradation while engaging in efforts to restore what has been degraded already.
