
As the world commemorates World Environment Day on June 5th, 2024, the focus sharpens on critical issues plaguing our planet’s landscapes: land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience. This year’s theme underscores the urgency of collective action to combat these challenges and safeguard the health of our ecosystems for future generations.
Restoring the Earth’s Vital Landscapes and Confronting Desertification World are not just environmental imperatives but global necessities for sustaining life on our planet. The degradation of fertile land and the encroaching desertification threaten the very foundation of food security, biodiversity, and community resilience. However, amidst these challenges, there is a beacon of hope in restoration efforts and multifaceted approaches to combat desertification. Governments, organizations, and communities worldwide are uniting to invest in land restoration projects, reforestation efforts, and sustainable land management practices to reverse the tide of degradation and restore the productivity of our ecosystems.
Simultaneously, the urgent need to build resilience against drought looms large in the face of increasingly severe and frequent dry spells. Droughts not only jeopardize agriculture and water resources but also deepen existing inequalities and exacerbate poverty. Yet, through integrated water resource management, improved agricultural practices, and community empowerment, we can bolster our resilience against drought and ensure the sustainable development of societies worldwide. By enhancing water efficiency, promoting soil conservation, and investing in drought-resistant technologies, we pave the way for a future where communities thrive, ecosystems flourish, and our planet’s landscapes are safeguarded for generations to come.
A Synergistic Cooperation
Aligned with the goals of the Green Deal and Horizon Europe Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change,” REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, IMPETUS, TransformAr, Pathways2Resilience and REACHOUT projects stand as a guide spot of hope and concrete actions in the fight against land degradation, desertification, and the impacts of drought. Our commitment to supporting vulnerable regions couldn’t be more timely, as communities worldwide grapple with the devastating effects of environmental degradation on their lands and livelihoods.
The close collaboration aims to ensure the development of tools and resources to restore degraded lands, combat desertification, and build resilience to drought.
The REGILIENCE Project
REGILIENCE and its sister projects take a holistic approach to addressing the interconnected challenges of desertification and drought. For example, the REGILIENCE self-assessment tool for maladaptation plays a crucial role in spotting potential risk factors for maladaptation in the planning phase of adaptation actions. By guiding users through a checklist of 17 questions, this tool helps identify and mitigate maladaptive potential, ensuring effective adaptation strategies.
Our capacity-building activities aim to empower regions to co-design and finalize climate resilience pathways, offering comprehensive support (e.g. opportunities on the European level, tools and solutions, indicators, maladaptation, funding), and technical solutions for adaptation (sectoral solutions and good practice implementations) to regional and local change makers. These sessions are available for all interested parties and will take place between March 2023 and 2025.
Explore our map and understand which regions are covered by REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, IMPETUS and TransformAr. The filtering available is by addressed Sustainable Development Goals, as well as by the Key Community Systems each region is addressing, coming from the Mission adaptation to climate change.
As we celebrate World Environment Day, let’s continue to empower communities, restore degraded lands, and ensure a more sustainable future for generations to come!