UN World Restoration Flagships

Source-This post on UN World Restoration Flagships is based on the article “From restoring forests to river basins, seven conservation initiatives across continents recognised by UN” published in “DownToEarth” on 13th February 2024.

Why in the News?

The United Nations recently designated seven initiatives spanning Africa, Latin America, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia as the UN World Restoration Flagships.

What is UN World Restoration Flagships?

1. About – It is a component of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, led by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Note – The UN General Assembly declared the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) to scale up restoration efforts of degraded ecosystems in order to combat climate change, improving food security, water supply, and biodiversity.

2. Objective– Its goal is to stop, prevent, and reverse the decline of ecosystems across all continents and oceans.

3. Eligibility– The awards recognize noteworthy initiatives that contribute to global commitments aimed at restoring one billion hectares of land.

4. Significance:
a. The recognition granted by the UNEP and FAO of the UN makes the initiatives qualified for technical and financial assistance from the organization.
b. Inclusion in the UN Secretary-General’s Report to the General Assembly.

What are the seven initiatives designated under UN World Restoration Flagships?

1. The Restoring Mediterranean Forests Initiative:
a. It includes countries Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey.
b. It employs an innovative approach to protect and restore natural habitats and vulnerable ecosystems. Around two million hectares of forests have been restored across the region since 2017.

2. The Living Indus initiative:
a. It was approved by the Pakistan parliament after the 2022 climate change induced floods.
b. It was officially launched at the 27th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm el-Sheikh.
c. The initiative designates the Indus River as a living entity with rights to protect rivers globally.

3. The Acción Andina social movement- It is led by Peruvian conservation non-profit ECOAN aims to protect and restore a forest area of one million hectares.

4. The Sri Lanka Mangrove Regeneration initiative – It is a community-led program focused on restoring the natural balance in the ecosystem through science-driven methods.

5. The Terai Arc Landscape initiative:
a. It aims to restore critical forest corridors in the India- Nepal region with the help of local communities acting as citizen scientists, anti-poaching units, forest guards, and more.
b. It also helped in increasing the tiger population in the landscape shared by India and Nepal to 1,174.

6. Regreening agriculture in Africa- To reverse land degradation on 1 million hectares across 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

7. The Growing Forests in Africa’s Drylands initiative- It aims to increase from 41,000 restored hectares area to 229,000 hectares by 2030.

UPSC Syllabus- Environment/International Organisations