The Trillion-Dollar Promise Of A Landscape Restoration Industry
We all count on ecosystems — and the natural resources we extract from them — to provide humanity with what it needs to survive and thrive. From fertile soils to forests and raw materials underground, nature appears to be an endless fountain furnishing all that we eat, drink, wear, live in, buy and rely on for fuel.
Yet climate change, declining biodiversity, ecosystem destruction, land degradation and pollution threaten our global life support system, putting whole societies at risk. After 20 years of working in international nature conservation, I have concluded that long-term investment in holistic landscape management and restoration is the key to future-proofing our planet while creating sustainable livelihoods for communities.
“Holistic” is the key word here. There is no point in restoring one tributary of a polluted river without tackling the whole basin — the problem will only resurface, and the investment will be rendered futile. From a risk perspective, it’s essential to consider the entire living system rather than pulling it apart.