Proposal for the United Nations to declare the 21st Century as 'The Century of Restoring the Earth'
Sustainable development is now recognised as an important goal by politicians, conservationists, aid workers, planners and many other people. However, for sustainable development to be achieved, the world requires, first of all, to have sustainable ecosystems, as all our human wellbeing and wealth ultimately derives from the ability of our planet to provide abundance - clean air, fresh water, healthy food and natural resources which can be used to make products for people's benefit.
At present, we do not have sustainable ecosystems in the world - everywhere forests, wetlands, savannas etc are being depleted, fragmented and destroyed. This is resulting in problems such as desertification, famine and starvation, soil erosion and extinction of species. It is also a contributory factor in global warming. Even if all the destruction currently taking place in the world were miraculously to stop tomorrow, we would still be left with a planet whose ability to support life - both human and that of the estimated 5 million other species in the world - is seriously diminished.
To return our planet to a state of health again, the current efforts to prevent further destruction (which in themselves are vital) must be matched by a concerted programme of restoration, to help the Earth heal, and to ensure that there is a sustainable future for ourselves, and all our fellow species.
Most environmental initiatives are by necessity concentrated on 'damage limitation' -reducing the destructive impact our industrial culture has on the world, but because of this they tend to be adversarial, creating opposition and polarity amongst different people and interest groups. By contrast, restoration is an entirely positive activity which can, and often does, draw together people from different backgrounds behind the common task of doing something positive for their local area and therefore the planet. In recent years, numerous restoration programmes have been initiated by local people, covering such diverse initiatives and ecosystems as the dry tropical forests of Costa Rica, the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, the mangroves of Viet Nam, salmon populations in rivers in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and the reintroduction of beavers to 13 countries in Europe.
However, in the 21st century, restoration on a substantially larger scale will become a major necessity on every continent and in every country. Because environmental degradation is a global phenomenon which transcends cultural, political and national differences, restoration will provide an opportunity to unite all of humanity behind a shared goal - the first in our history - of helping to heal the Earth.
To catalyse this process, we are proposing to the United Nations that the 21st Century be declared the Century of Restoring the Earth, in the same way that, for example, 1986 was declared the International Year of Peace, and that the 1990s have been declared the Third Disarmament Decade.
Given the scale of the world's environmental problems today, restoration of degraded ecosystems will take at least a hundred years (and much longer in some cases - for example, restoring native forests to a primary condition), so it is entirely appropriate that a century-long perspective be taken for this.
The beginning of the new millennium is being looked upon by many as a significant time in the world's history. Possibly the most important initiative which would mark it as a true turning point for humanity is to dedicate the 21st century to repairing the damage which has been wrought upon the planet, particularly in the last 150 years. Starting the new millennium with an international focus on restoration will provide a positive vision for nations and individuals to rally behind, and will help people everywhere to realise that we need to actively take care of our degraded world for our future wellbeing.
Some possible initiatives to begin the Century of Restoring the Earth
Ten percent of each nation's military budget to be re-directed to restoration activities, either in cash or `in kind'. This percentage to be increased continuously in the years ahead. Military personnel, equipment and organisational abilities to be made available for key restoration programmes. This will help to provide a new, meaningful role for the military in the next century, as true global security depends on having a healthy planet to live on! (Examples of this already exist - the RAF base at Kinloss, Moray, Scotland has helped with the reintroduction of the sea eagle to Scotland by transporting young birds from Norway in their planes, while the US Army Corps of Engineers is currently involved in a large project to restore natural water courses in areas where streams and rivers had been previously been channeled in linear canals in the Everglades region of Florida).
Establishment of an Earth Restoration Service, enrolling people from all over the world as volunteers in essential restoration programmes. This would be an expanded, international equivalent of the US Peace Corps or Britain's VSO (voluntary service overseas), but focussed specifically on restoration. It would achieve practical restoration results and also provide training to local people wherever it operated in basic restoration principles and techniques. A similar scheme to this - the Earth Restoration Corps - has already been proposed as part of the Agenda 21 initiative arising from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Establishment of a Global Restoration Network, linking up existing restoration programmes and initiatives so that they can exchange information, experience, techniques and skills. This would also provide a source of information and inspiration for new restoration projects and for people who want to become involved in restoration programmes.
Establishment of a few key `flagship' projects, which would be visionary in scale and purpose, and which would capture the public imagination, rallying them around the whole concept of the 21st century being dedicated to the healing of the Earth. The Live Aid concert which was held in 1985 showed the potential for a large proportion of humanity to unite behind a common project, a shared goal, and some carefully-chosen and well-thought out restoration programmes could be similarly attractive and inspiring. Possibilities for this include:- a large scale, coordinated programme of native forest restoration in the Sahel region of Africa, using native tree species, to reverse the spread of desertification and the recurrent famines there; a concerted campaign to remove all land mines around the world by a specified target date; habitat restoration programmes for `charismatic' wildlife species, such as the tiger, panda etc to ensure that these species survive in viable and increasing numbers again; complete clean-up of all toxic, nuclear and chemical waste sites by a specified date.
Small-scale local restoration projects should be introduced as part of the curriculum in schools everywhere, while major universities would be encouraged to set up whole new departments to provide the research and scientific basis for the larger ecosystem-scale projects which will be initiated on every continent.
Just imagine... A possible brief historical overview, looking back from the year 2100
21st Century History of Ecological Restoration
2000 The 21st Century is declared the 'Century of Restoring the Earth' by
the United Nations. Each country is requested to redirect 10% of its
military budget, either in cash or 'in kind', towards essential
restoration projects.
2000 The Earth Restoration Service is launched, enrolling volunteers of all ages from around the world in essential restoration projects.
2001 Project Green Sahel is initiated, enlisting volunteers and military personnel in restoration and tree planting work in the Sahel region.
2002 The European beaver is reintroduced to Scotland.
2003 The International Clean Rivers Project is launched, with the goal of
cleaning up the world's polluted rivers. The first target is to clean up
the 50 most polluted rivers in the next 10 years.
2004 With the aid of an international military task force, specially trained
in minimal impact environmental field work, feral goats are
eradicated from Santiago Island in the Galapagos Islands - the 50,000
goats there had been seriously affecting the island's unique vegetation
and endangering the survival prospects of its giant tortoises.
2005 The International Wild Rivers Project is launched, with the goal of
restoring naturally free-flowing rivers, through the dismantling of
some of the world's most environmentally-destructive dams. The
project begins with two major dams being removed - the Glen Canyon
dam in Arizona, USA, and the Lake Pedder dam in Tasmania, Australia.
2005 The use of trees for making paper is completely phased out, thereby
saving substantial areas of old growth forest from logging. This
occurs through a reduction in paper usage, combined with a
substantial increase in paper recycling and the use of alternative
fibre sources such as hemp and straw.
2006 The Solar Energy Conversion Campaign is launched, with the aim of
replacing at least 50% of the world's fossil fuel usage and 100% of
the nuclear energy usage in the next decade. This is also a major step
towards reducing the impact of global warming.
2007 Wild buffalo herds once again roam the American Mid-West, after they
have been reintroduced to substantial areas of abandoned farmland
which have been restored to native prairie ecosystems.
2007 The nuclear submarines dumped on the Arctic Ocean seabed by the
former Soviet Union are raised and safely decommissioned on land by
a specially-trained international military task force.
2008 Chemical fertilisers are completely phased out and all the world's
agriculture becomes organic, with immediate benefit to the health of
people, the land and wildlife.
2008 Iceland becomes the first country in the world to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels, when it completes the conversion to hydrogen and
hydro-electric energy supplies.
2009 Wolves are reintroduced to Japan.
2010 Following a decade-long international information campaign, the
consumption of meat and dairy products falls by 50%, as
substantial numbers of people become vegetarian or sharply reduce
the amount of meat in their diet. This leads to large areas of former
pasture land becoming available for restoration to their original
condition of native forest or prairie.
2011 The world's last functioning nuclear power station is decommissioned.
Renewable energy sources now account for 30% of the planet's energy
consumption - this in turn has been reduced, through energy
conservation and elimination of waste, to 80% of what it was in 1999.
2013 In a dramatic demonstration of the success of the International
Clean Rivers Project, the Ganges River in India is declared clean
enough to drink at the holy city of Benares.
2014 For the second successive year, the hole in the ozone layer over
Antarctica decreases in size, indicating that the bans on the
production and use of ozone-damaging chemicals are leading to the
restoration of the planet's protective layer of ozone.
2015 The world's populations of marine fish, such as tuna, anchovy, cod and
haddock begin to recover to their pre-exploitation levels, as a result
of the declining human consumption of fish. This in turn leads to a
recovery in the populations of the various seabirds and marine
mammals which naturally feed on these species.
2016 Using a similar technique to that employed in the Galapagos Islands, a
massive joint civilian/military conservation operation leads to the
complete eradication of brush-tailed possums in New Zealand.
Introduced from Australia, these exotic marsupials proliferated in the
absence of any predators, numbering 70 million by the end of the 20th
century, and wreaked havoc on the native forests and their birdlife.
2017 The world is declared free of land mines, after a concerted
international mine removal campaign. Originally expected to take 50
years from its launch in 1997, the campaign accelerated substantially
once major international military resources were redirected to it.
2018 The World Health Organisation issues a report detailing the falling
rates of cardio-vascular and other degenerative diseases in countries
throughout the world. The report highlights the link between this and
the conversion to organic agriculture and a low meat or vegetarian
diet a decade earlier.
2023 Wolves are reintroduced to the restored Caledonian Forest in Scotland.
2024 Tiger numbers reach 10,000 in the wild, and it's removed from the
Endangered Species list.
2025 50 years after the end of the Vietnam war, the government announces
that forest cover has been restored from 22% to 58% of the land.
2028 Following the complete cessation of whaling in 2002, the world's
whale populations are recorded as being the highest in 150 years.
2037 For the third successive year, rainfall increases in West Africa,
reversing a trend first documented in 1997, when scientists
positively linked the then-decreasing rainfall with the extensive
deforestation in the region. The now increasing rainfall is attributed
to the extensive forest restoration work carried out in the region
since 2001, which has led to a quadrupling of the forest cover.
2063 Tiger numbers reach 50,000 in the wild - a population level which is deemed ecologically viable in the long term.
2085 In the restored Atlantic rainforest of Brazil not far from Rio, a
previously unknown monkey species is discovered, and it is taken as a
sign that the world's ecosystems are capable of supporting the full
biological diversity of species again.
2091 The ecological conversion of all the world's major cities is completed,
substantially reducing human demands on the planet's ecosystems.
2100 9 year old David asks his great-grandfather Kevin Featherstone, then
aged 105, how the Healing of the Earth took place. Kevin replies: "It
all started with individuals here and there, deciding to make a
difference with their lives. When they began to work with Nature,
rather than against her, seeming miracles took place - the Earth really
responded to our love and care."
People & Organisations who have already endorsed the Proposal
David Brower
First Executive Director of the Sierra Club (USA); founder, Friends of the Earth; founder and chairman, Earth Island Institute.
Bob Brown
Australian Greens Senator for Tasmania, Global 500 Environment award winner, and one of the leading figures in the Australian conservation movement for over 25 years.
Norman Myers
Author, 'The Primary Source', internationally renowned scientist
Daniel Janzen
Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania; winner of the Kyoto Prize in Basic Science; driving force behind the restoration of Costa Rica's dry tropical forests.
Dorothy Maclean
Co-founder of the Findhorn Community, author and international lecturer.
Paul Hawken
Author of several books including `The Ecology of Commerce' and `Natural Capitalism', international lecturer, leading proponent of the reform of corporations' ecological impact.
Vance Martin
President, The WILD Foundation, USA.
Stephanie Mills
Author, 'In Service of the Wild', international lecturer.
Vandana Shiva
Author and internationally-renowned activist on environmental issues.
Tewolde Egziabher
Manager, National Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopia.
Satish Kumar
Jain monk, editor of `Resurgence' magazine (UK), founder of Schumacher College (UK).
John Seed
International rainforest activist, founder of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia, and co-developer of the Council of All Beings experiential deep ecology workshops.
Edward Posey
Co-Founder & Trustee of the Gaia Foundation (USA) and Trustee of the Wilderness Leadership School (South Africa).
Michael Shaw
Executive Director of Ocean Arks International (USA) & Chairman of the Trustees of the Findhorn Foundation (Scotland).
6th World Wilderness Congress
Convened in Bangalore, India, 23-29 October 1998.
Earth Charter Initiative
International initiative of the Earth Council in Costa Rica, which is developing a 'People's Earth Charter' to secure a sustainable future based on justice, equity, peace and ecological values.
Pedder 2000
Initiative to restore Lake Pedder in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia.
See the Restore the Earth website
