Following the official launch of the ‘Decade of Ecosystem Restoration’ by the UN, Professor Jim Harris, Professor of Environmental Technology at Cranfield University, said:
“The time to act is now, and here at Cranfield we have a deep understanding of how to address this challenge, and seek to play our part in this global initiative, through our research and education capabilities and capacity.
“I am delighted to see this important initiative from the UN, responding to the Bonn Challenge, taking forward the critical need to restore the world’s ecosystems, wherever they lay in the land use spectrum, from intensive agriculture, through urban green infrastructure, to re-instating natural processes in protected areas and beyond. This announcement has come as a result of the hard work of such bodies as The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the UN Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Recent evidence points to the crisis in animal extinction, the crash in insect, particularly pollinator, numbers, and the degrading effects of plastics and intense chemical use.”
