Initiative 20×20: Restoring Degraded lands in Caribbean and Latin America

Considered to be the most self-seeking and self- centred of all the other creations of God, man is cognizant of the very significance of the environment that he lives in and also he knows the reason for its destruction as well but the irony lies in the fact that he continues to exploit the resources that have been provided to him to make life worth living. The ever-growing human population with a limited stock of resources and selfish and destructive human intervention are slowly and gradually digging a pit for everyone to fall into.

The life system on earth is in a tremendous strain which is menacing the survival of several other lives on the planet. Change is considered to be good but the kind of change the world is witnessing today, is nothing less than a menace, because it is leading to frequent disasters, extreme temperatures, turning the planet into a furnace. The menace here being talked of is the change in the ecological balance that needs an equal attention from all those who share the bounties provided by Mother Earth.

Non-Aligned Movement, since its inception has been a pool of concerted and shared efforts of various nations across the world, committed towards dealing with the collective evil. Not only air and water get affected with human intervention, the almost 30 per cent part of Earth constituted by land also gets victimised by human activities.

Healthy lands have implications on access to water, soil conservation, climate change, agricultural productivity, conservation of biodiversity and lot more. In order to ensure a helping hand towards the major concern, initiative 20×20 is a country-led effort to transform the spirit of land degradation in Latin America and the Caribbean countries. The plan to change the dynamics of land degradation and ensure advance restoration of land across the region requires an amalgamation of intent, expertise and capital in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The initiative is a regional cooperation to restore more than 20 million hectares of land under degradation by the year 2020. Commitments regarding the initiative form a part of the Bonn Challenge, a global initiative that through forest and landscape restoration look for the restoration of 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2020 and extends to 350 million hectares of land by 2030. Leading the secretariat of the initiative, the World Resources Institute (WRI), in collaboration with 40 technical and financial organisations and institutions back the restoration process by facilitating the dialogue between the governments, civil society and the private sector to form an effective alliance to achieve the desired goals.

Aware of the various degrees of land degradation in the area, the initiative 20×20 aims to support the global efforts to bring back land functionality to life through numerous sustainable land use schemes, agroforestry practices, sylvo pastures and others, to ensure soil conservation and recovery, water retention and stable hydrologies, conservation and recovery of biodiversity and carbon storage. Reforestation both natural and assisted, avoided deforestation and conservation of forest lands form an integral part of the restoration process.

The process does not limit itself to just a financially attractive mitigation measure but ensures to bring with it substantial co-benefits including, increase in food security, rural welfare and climate resilience simultaneously. The process also aims to deliver by 2050, around 60 per cent reductions in emissions needed in Latin America and Caribbean region and could also result in net economic benefits of more than $20 billion in the coming 50 years.

The global effort does require a set of committed endeavours to curb the issue and help in reversing and halting the forest loss. The long-term sustainability of the restoration effort leans on the investment made by the private sector. Thus, it becomes a shared responsibility of everyone to accelerate the process. Mother earth has blessed us with its bounties that make life possible and even more comfortable. Reiterating its concern and commitment towards ensuring a balance in nature, Non-Aligned Movement and its Member States have laid emphasis on conserving and sharing that becomes the utmost need of the hour when the availability of resources is scarce and needs to be kept for the future generations as well. The nature has rewarded us with such a beautiful gift. And we as an inseparable part of the nature and a conscious head must realise its importance and use the resources judiciously so as to make sure that our coming generations do not suffer.