We Must Restore Nature to Keep Our Planet Habitable For Future Generations

"As the planet heats up, we are facing growing problems of either too much or too little water." That was the warning from Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, this month. From major rivers like the Ganges, Amazon, Mekong, and Mississippi dropping to historically low levels, to the U.S., Mexico, and much of Europe being repeatedly hit by catastrophic storms and flooding, the world is facing unprecedented climate extremes. Either way—too wet or too dry—we all feel the consequences of this environmental degradation. As U.N. Secretary General António Guterres once put it: “Humanity is waging a war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal.”

The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated. We have no choice but to act now or face even worse devastation. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we must restore nature and the health of our land if we want to keep our planet inhabitable for future generations. This work cannot be done by individual nations alone; it requires a coordinated global effort to meet these existential threats.  

The root cause of nature and biodiversity loss lies in how we use land. And agriculture is one of the main drivers. Over 70% of ice-free land on earth has been altered by human activity, primarily for food production. As we continue to convert wildlands to agriculture, we degrade ecosystems, pushing countless species to the brink of extinction and devastating livelihoods for local and Indigenous communities. Unsustainable agricultural practices further exacerbate biodiversity loss and the decline of ecosystems that provide the basics for sustaining life like clean air and water, and fertile soils. But we can produce healthy and nutritious food in a sustainable way by managing and restoring our productive lands. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has put it quite simply, saying in a speech at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, “without good soil, crops fail, prices rise, people go hungry.”

There are important global meetings this fall—known as Conferences of the Parties (COP)—which will provide global leaders critical opportunities to unite around the important cause of bringing our earth’s systems back into balance—and find the funding to do it. In November, the COP climate conference in Azerbaijan will focus on financing for climate mitigation and adaptation. Meanwhile, the Biodiversity COP currently underway in Colombia centers on halting the loss of nature and finding financing to achieve the ambitious global goal of conserving 30% of the planet by 2030.  

A third key event, the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), will spotlight the restoration of degraded lands and the need of building drought resilience working with communities, companies and citizens in rural and urban landscapes around the globe. The UNCCD is a critical global voice for conserving and restoring land, and one of the three major U.N. treaties known as the Rio Conventions, alongside climate and biodiversity. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is leading the way to make this UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh “a moonshot moment to raise global ambition and accelerate action on land and drought resilience through a people-centered approach.” 

The benefits of restoring degraded lands are vast. Roughly $44 trillion of economic output—more than half of global GDP—depends on functioning natural systems. Restoring land is not just an environmental issue; it is key to addressing global challenges such as food and water insecurity, human migration, and poverty. As UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw emphasized: “By restoring land, we restore life, restore our economies, restore our communities, and so much more. We cannot stop the climate crisis today, biodiversity loss tomorrow, and land degradation the day after. We need to tackle all these issues together.” As former environmental ministers from countries across the globe—North and South, developed and developing—and part of the Nature Now Commission, we could not agree more. The time to act for nature and healthy land, and the people who depend on it, is now.

Andrea Meza is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

The Nature Now Commission is an informal collaboration of former government officials and international leaders from across the world who support the ambitious implementation of the three Rio Conventions and advocate collectively and individually for global actions that safeguard the well-being of people and planet. Current members include: Andrea Meza, Cynthia Barzuna, Carlos Correa, Alfredo Giron, Zac Goldsmith, Gustavo Manrique Miranda, Monica Medina, and Mohamed Nasheed.