Generation Restoration: A global call to action on World Environment Day 2024

Today we celebrate the World Environment Day, where the global community emphasises the need to restore ecosystems. This year's theme, 'Our Land. Our Future’ highlights the importance of reversing land degradation, a situation impacting nearly 3.2 billion people, or 40 % of the world's population and threatening food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity. This shows why changes in the way of life are needed from this generation to ensure a more balanced earth.

Leveraging data is essential for supporting effective restoration. Interestingly, trees play a big part in this data extraction through the so-called ‘Wood Wide Web’, a complex network of fungi and bacteria which exchange nutrients between trees to support their health and ecosystem stability. Scientists were inspired by this natural way of sharing data and therefore created Restor, an online digital platform that is built to show the progress on global restoration projects. 

While Restor is visualising research data, the data.europa.eu portal has a category dedicated to ‘environment’, with over 165.000 datasets, including information on land use, biodiversity, and climate change. For example, the Irish government published new data on their recycling points for electronic devices, following the European Union Regulations of 2014. These datasets are valuable for policymakers and stakeholders, offering insights that guide sustainable practices and monitor the restoration progress.

By fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation and making data publicly available, policymakers and stakeholders can drive significant progress in ecosystem restoration. Learn more about how you can contribute to Generation Restoration and explore relevant datasets on data.europa.eu to support informed decision-making in environmental restoration efforts.

For more news and events, follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, or subscribe to our newsletter.