Restoration of ecosystems for humanity | In deep

Thousands of people are forced to move from their places of origin each year because they do not have enough food or drinking water.

READ ALSO:

Health risks of sweeteners

A part of the situation that the human being lives is due to the fact that he has not known how to coexist with his natural environment, from which he obtains everything necessary to survive.

For this reason, the United Nations Organization (UN) clarifies that the restoration of ecosystems is key for humanity, since this would contribute to the well-being and prosperity of people.

What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem refers to all living organisms and the way in which they interact with each other, with their environment, such as the climate, soil, weather, and atmosphere.

Each of the organisms has a key function, promoting the health of the ecosystem as a whole.

In other words, an ecosystem can be as big as an ocean or as small as a pond, but its role is crucial for humanity, producing food, providing water, building materials and other important elements. In addition, they help mitigate the effects of climate change.

It is a space in which plants, animals and other organisms live, including the landscape in which they are immersed, forming a web of life.

However, the extraction of resources has pushed many ecosystems to their maximum limit.

What is ecosystem restoration?

The United Nations considers that the restoration of these spaces is a "process of reversing the degradation of ecosystems to recover their ecological functionality", that is, improving their capacity to meet the needs of human beings.

According to the data issued by the organization, between 2015 and 2020 more than 10 million hectares of forests have been lost per year, and more than two thirds of the ocean ecosystems are degraded, damaged or modified.

Such degradation constitutes a threat to humanity and to a sustainable future.

In fact, restoring ecosystems can contribute to the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as life on land, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, climate action, production and responsible consumption, marine life, among others.

Ecosystem Benefits

Farmland and forests, and even mountains and oceans, bring many environmental, economic and social benefits.

For example, forests support 80 percent of all amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, and 68 percent of mammal species. In the case of the oceans, they represent 99 percent of the living space of the planet.

For this reason, the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, which applies from 2021 to 2030, has sought to promote environmental objectives, facilitating cooperation at the global level to achieve this task of restoring destroyed ecosystems and degraded, promoting efforts to address climate change, safeguard biodiversity, guarantee food security and water supply, trying to involve not only governments, but also non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private entities.

Restoring ecosystems could provide benefits such as greater food security, greater access to water, and the management of conflict and migration phenomena.

It is a fact that human activities are affecting ecosystems to the point that it is no longer possible for some to provide goods and services.

The factors that are driving the loss of biodiversity include climate change, desertification, deforestation, overexploitation, decrease in fresh water, mass extinction of species, among others.

How can an ecosystem be restored?

A degraded natural ecosystem, for example a forest, can be restored to its healthy state if contaminants are removed or megafauna, such as certain ones, are restored.

In the case of farmland, hedgerows could be restored, which would help improve soil quality.

A degraded ecosystem could be restored until it becomes a natural ecosystem, despite the fact that the UN warns that this could only be done if it does not have a negative impact on the people who depend on said modified ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the UN warns that different approaches are required to achieve ecosystem restoration, since what may work in one area may not work in another.

Among the approaches being considered are iconological restoration, regenerative agriculture and rewilding.