Ethiopia "regreens" degraded land. Plans to restore 15m more hectares by 2030.

Video screen capture 1080 Film & Television

I recently mused on the fact that conservation is not enough. We need to also focus on restoration and rehabilitation of nature too. So I was delighted to read over at The Guardian about an incredible success story in restoring degraded and deforested land in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia.

Working together, farming communities have already "regreened" vast areas on the hillsides of Tigray by planting seedlings, restricting grazing and building terraces and walls to hold back soil erosion. Chris Reij, a researcher with the World Resources Institute, told the paper that 224,000 hectares of land have been restored so far.

Even cooler than that, though, is news that Ethiopia pledged at the New York Climate Summit to restore 15m hectares of degraded land by 2030, as part of a pledge involving many nations including Uganda, Chile, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This is good stuff. But we must do more. From flood-stricken Yorkshire villages restoring their hillsides to an Indian engineer planting mini-forests everywhere, there are countless stories out there of people coming together to promote positive, regenerative interaction between humans and nature.

Let's get to work.

For more on the incredible work done in Tigray so far, check out this trailer for a forthcoming documentary called Ethiopia Rising, by 1080 Film & Television, the same people who created The Man Who Stopped the Desert.

Source: treehugger.com