The UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration

January 2021 - Special Edition:

As we are entering 2021, we would like to take the opportunity to provide an update on the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. The UN Decade as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 1 March 2019, is co-led by UNEP and FAO and in close collaboration with the secretariats of the Rio Conventions, other relevant multilateral environmental agreements and entities of the United Nations system together with a wide range of global, national, and local partners. You, as the world’s leading knowledge network on forest restoration, will play a key role during the implementation of the Decade.

Many of you have kindly provided comments on the draft strategy for the UN Decade during the global public consultation from February to May 2020. Over 2,000 comments were received from all stakeholder groups, including 17 UN entities and conventions. The consultations revealed a global enthusiasm for restoration and a keen global interest to get involved as part of the UN Decade, for the benefit of people, climate and nature. The final strategy for the UN Decade was revealed on 15 September 2020 in a webinar and constituted a great opportunity to ramp up engagement in preparation of the official launch on World Environment Day 2021 (5 June 2021).

On behalf of FAO and UNEP, we wish to thank you for your contributions and support. To this regard, we share with you for your information a letter from Mr. Qu Dongyu, Director General, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Ms. Inger Andersen, Executive Director, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in English and French.

The official launch of the UN Decade with World Environment Day on 5 June 2021 offers the unique opportunity to reach hundreds of millions across the globe, host 1,000s of events across the world and inspire 30,000+ media articles.

That said, there is much that you are invited and encouraged to do already now, such as using #GenerationRestoration in social media communication which allows all of us to link our efforts. Posts with #GenerationRestoration hashtag will automatically be mirrored on the UN Decade wall.

Additionally, we are also pleased to announce that…

More information and all resources such as the Visual Identity toolkit the can be found on the website.
Two task forces have already been created – one on “Monitoring” and one on “Good Practices” of ecosystem restoration – bringing together colleagues from across hundreds of organizations. Work is progressing rapidly and major outputs – such as a geospatial monitoring tool for the UN Decade – will be ready in time for the launch. Three more task forces are envisaged at this point: Science, Finance, and Youth.
The list of official partners of the UN Decade is growing. Please find the list of confirmed partners on the website, including collaborating agencies from the UN System. If you wish to initiate discussions of a formal partnership of your organization with the UN Decade, please contact the Decade team at restorationdecade@un.org. Please note that you do not need any official partnership with the UN Decade lead organizations to take the steps in the attached ‘Steps to launch’ overview! You can go ahead now, including use of the UN Decade logo which is available for download on the Decade website, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes.
Individuals and organizations can sign -up to the UN Decade Newsletter to receive the latest updates, stories, news and opportunities.

Once again and on behalf of the co-leading agencies, UNEP and FAO, our sincere appreciation for your support to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.