World Environment Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1973, is a truly global event. It is the largest international gathering focused on the environment, coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Annually, millions of people from governments, businesses, civil society, and educational institutions unite to raise awareness and take action on environmental issues, with a shared goal of protecting the planet’s future.

The theme for 2024, “Land Restoration, Stopping Desertification and Building Drought Resilience,” is not just a call to action but a pressing one. It underscores the urgent need to restore land, combat desertification, and enhance resilience to drought, all of which are crucial for our immediate survival and the future of our planet.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that countries must “use their new national climate action plans to set out how to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030” and “drastically scale up finance to support developing countries to adapt to violent weather, protect nature, and support sustainable development.”

At present, a staggering 40% of the world’s land is degraded, a situation that affects approximately 3.2 billion people worldwide due to desertification. Projections further indicate that by 2050, more than three-quarters of the global population will grapple with the effects of drought. The gravity of human-induced environmental damage is rising, with far-reaching implications such as climate change, ecosystem loss, and land desertification.

Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a global rallying call to protect and revive the ecosystem to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. PAM and CGS stand firm along this path and reaffirm the need to fight against climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution, and waste.