Journeying towards a New Normal
The
COVID 19 crisis has cast a paralytic shadow on the trajectory of
development. As the world is still grappling with the pandemic, we have
to admit to the fact that this unforeseen enemy was always poised to
strike. We must accept that a re-orientation in existing structures is
necessary for us to develop resilience from any anticipated future
crises.
The 2016 UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Frontiers report had flagged zoonoses as an issue of global concern.
Unwavering global trends have highlighted that zoonotic disease
outbreaks are happening more frequently. Without human to animal
transmission, the pandemic would not have presented itself so
virulently. Drivers of ecosystem fragmentation have exacerbated the
crisis.
It is quite prophetic that the decade
2021-2031 has been declared as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
In the recently released Zero Draft on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity
Framework, the overarching Vision for 2050 is - “Biodiversity is valued,
conserved, restored and widely used, maintaining ecosystem services,
sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all
people”1. The global narrative is vociferous in its opinion that the
current mode of an indulgent lifestyle is catastrophically unviable.
Our road to recovery must be guided by
heuristics that generate:
-
awareness and behavioural change
-
ecologically sensitive policies /
legislations that are outcome based
-
inclusive and participatory governance
-
adequate mobilisation of finance and
resources
-
transparency in monitoring and evaluation
mechanisms
Governments must simultaneously ensure
adequate investment in natural capital for ecosystem resilience and
regeneration, including the restoration of carbon-rich habitats and
climate-friendly agriculture. The rebuilding process should include
providing jobs in the green sectors and not necessarily in the city. The
work-from-home culture should propel us towards investing more in
broadband networks than in building road and rail networks, while energy
from renewables must become a top priority.
Pushpam Kumar, UNEP’s Chief Environmental
Economist and Senior Economic Advisor advises that the wild should be
left in the wild. He says that biodiversity conservation should be
firmly integrated into economic planning and investment. Finally,
nature-based solutions (NBS) to environmental degradation should become
the DNA of recovery activities. The NBS are actions to protect,
sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that
address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously
providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
The work of the United Nations Environment
programme along with the others has shown that the restoration of land
to achieve land degradation-neutral development by 2030 is not only far
more cost-effective (cost per unit of benefit), but it also helps in
poverty alleviation. Therefore, relief packages and recovery plans that
overlook the restoration of biodiversity and nature are short-sighted
and recipes for failure.
Our goals for the new decade must not only
be ‘Sustainable’ but also be ‘Regenerative’. Our efforts should be to
‘Green’ our strategies in a way that the focus is not on sustaining the
system; but for the system to revitalise itself on its own. Novel
strategies should be geared towards - Restore, Accommodate and
Regenerate. ■
Endnote:
1 Zero Draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – Convention
on Biological Diversity
Atul Bagai
Head, India Country Office, UN Environment Programme
atul.bagai@unep.org
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