The year 2020 started with such optimism and hope for nature-based solutions and environmental social and governance investments were high on the agenda at Davos; the World Economic Forum launched the 1 Trillion Trees campaign, backed by Salesforce; BlackRock's CEO sent an open letter to industry leaders about the future of the planet and the tough but necessary choices ahead for investment; and calls for action from young people were gathering momentum.
"The big result of this COVID crisis is there will be a lot of jobless people in many impoverished places, when in fact these people could... have jobs in carrying [out] restoration projects near their village, near their community," says Robert Nasi, Director-General of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in a recent Global Landscapes Forum panel discussion [minute 38].
As one of many contributing initiatives for a post COVID-19 economic recovery that, in turn, supports the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and the 1 Trillion Trees campaign, UNEP is exploring the expansion of the "pay to grow" model in East Africa with Greenstand and Fairtree.org.
Mobilizing millions of new tree champions along the last mile is imperative if we are to achieve the bold targets set out by the 1 Trillion Trees initiative and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
"In a post COVID-19 world, the pay-to-grow model creates a unique opportunity to tackle the climate crisis and pay some of the world's poorest people to restore degraded lands," says Christophersen.
