UN Q&A: Ecosystem Protection & The Trillion Trees Initiative

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration continues to drive global action to halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems, bringing together governments, businesses, communities and individuals in a shared effort to restore nature and strengthen human wellbeing.

Among the leading voices supporting this mission is Tom Crowther, Professor of Global Ecology and Founder of Restor.eco and the BRANCH Institute, whose work focuses on understanding the quantitative links between biodiversity, climate and human wellbeing at a global scale.

Since 2021, Tom has been the Founding Chair of The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration as well as a Co-Chair on the Advisory Board.

His work has contributed to a growing understanding of how restoring ecosystems can generate positive feedback loops that benefit both nature and society, creating momentum for long-term environmental and economic resilience.

Beyond his academic research, Tom serves in advisory roles, focusing on improving soil biodiversity to enhance agricultural productivity.

Through these roles, he has helped advance global conversations around ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation and climate action, while advocating for approaches that place local communities at the centre of environmental recovery.

Tom shares his insights with Sustainability Magazine.

What is the United Nations' Decade on Ecosystem Restoration?

The United Nations' Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global rallying cry to engage society in the mission to halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. 

Co-led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this initiative defined this decade as the one where society must come together to turn around the trajectory of nature loss across our planet. 

Its goal is to revive over one billion hectares of land and aquatic areas to promote the livelihoods of rural communities across the globe and build a world where people and nature can thrive together.

What are ecological feedback loops?

Feedback loops are the elegant patterns when something causes a response that reinforces that original thing. These patterns are everywhere. 

They happen in our daily lives, like when we are nervous about sleeping and it makes it harder to sleep, making us get even more nervous. 

They also happen in our societies when wealth leads to the accumulation of more wealth. 

In fact, these forces shaped our entire universe, as they allowed matter to attract more matter after the big bang, giving rise to the reinforcing loops that ultimately formed the stars and everything we know. 

They are the forces of unimaginable growth and momentum that give rise to all of the most powerful forces in the universe.

At this moment, human-induced feedback loops are spiralling out of control. Biodiversity loss exacerbates climate change, which in turn drives further biodiversity loss. 

Greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, driving carbon loss from the soil, which drives even more warming. There are countless other patterns like this. 

But as I explore in my book, Nature’s Echo, the beauty of these loops is that they can build momentum in any direction. 

We are beginning to see this in electric vehicles becoming cheaper than combustion engines; in renewable energy becoming more reliable than fossil fuels; and in regenerative food becoming healthier and tastier than mass-produced goods. 

When regenerative options like this become the preferred option for people, then feedback loops can grow to tip entire industries.

And if we can find a way to get excited about these regenerative opportunities that improve our health, wealth, fun or fashion choices, then that enjoyment can be the fuel for feedback loops that can fundamentally transform our planetary trajectory. 

The forces that shaped our entire universe will drive our planet towards regeneration if we can only allow them to build.

How does the UN incorporate human systems into feedback loops?

When the recovery of nature improves rural people's livelihoods, they are intrinsically motivated to protect more of nature. This is what nature restoration really means. 

There are hundreds of thousands of examples of this in every region of our planet. 

This can happen when shade-grown coffee is more productive than the alternatives, or when mangrove restoration saves thousands of coastal jobs, or when ecotourism provides safer income than the degradation of natural land. 

There are millions of people across the globe benefiting from the restoration of their local land, which is securing food production, job security and the wellbeing of entire communities. 

In every case, when nature improves the livelihoods of rural people, it only encourages more people to get involved and you cannot stop it from building momentum across entire landscapes. 

Can the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration counteract climate change?

There is no single solution that can stop climate change alone. We need every solution possible. But the revival of nature provides one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal. 

Not only because nature restoration can capture 30% of the carbon that we need in the fight against climate change - but because it supports millions of livelihoods across the globe. 

When the recovery of nature improves the wellbeing of people, then it can grow at incredible rates, to help us with water security, food production, pandemic prevention, economic security and emotional wellbeing. 

When nature is allowed to regenerate on our planet, the benefits are not only ecological. This is a deeply human experience. 

What is the Trillion Trees initiative?

The Trillion Trees initiative is a global initiative to revive natural forest biodiversity to promote the livelihoods of rural communities. 

Forests around the world store over 600-800 billion tonnes of carbon. 

But half of the world's forests have already been lost and deforestation is an ongoing threat. 

Our research showed that protecting a third of the lost land – in areas outside urban and agricultural use – could allow these ecosystems to recover and capture another 200 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. 

This calls for a mass bottom-up movement, where rural communities, Indigenous populations, foresters and farmers are empowered to promote the forests that they depend on. 

Such a process would help us draw down over 30% of the excess carbon we have released into the atmosphere, which would then feed back to improve the health of forests once more. 

The Trillion Trees initiative encourages governments and companies worldwide to invest in local conservation and restoration efforts to protect and restore these ecosystems.  

What does the future of the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration look like?

At the moment, deforestation is still considerably higher than ecological restoration rates across the globe. 

However, that does not tell the full story, because we are seeing the trends starting to change. 

For the first time, deforestation rates are declining, while ecological restoration rates are increasing. 

If these trends continue, the two trajectories will cross and there will be a net gain in biodiversity on our planet.

If the feedback loops between biodiversity protection and human livelihoods are allowed to grow, then this trend will become inevitable. 

It is our collective societal challenge to nourish these feedback loops with our attention, joy and enthusiasm so that they can continue to build momentum across the globe. 

Everything we do impacts nature, so every choice we make can make a positive difference.