Ecological restoration refers to a range of human activities designed to promote the recovery of ecosystems that have been so disturbed that their structure has been altered and their healthy functioning has been impaired. Researchers are increasingly warning that human actions have so depleted the natural world that the ability of Earth’s ecosystems to sustain future generations is far from guaranteed.
Snowchange representatives spoke to Mongabay news about the Landscape Rewilding Programme. The episode is available here.
The restoration of degraded ecosystems has become so urgent, in fact, that the decade of 2021 to 2030 has been declared the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which the UN says is “a rallying call” to ramp up efforts to protect and revive ecosystems worldwide. “Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity,” according to the UN.
Snowchange’s Landscape Rewilding Programme, which aims to rewild Arctic and boreal habitats using both traditional Indigenous knowledge and science is reviewed at length. A more ground-level view of ecological restoration by telling us about the program’s efforts to rewild the Koitajoki River basin in Finland.