FAITH &
RESTORATION

OVERVIEW

This Hub is designed to support partnerships between faith-based organisations (FBOs) and conservation actors, with the aim of restoring natural ecosystems around the world – for the benefit of people, nature and the climate.

In this UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the global community has a goal of restoring millions of hectares of degraded ecosystems by 2030. In December 2022 at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, a Global Biodiversity Framework was agreed to outlining key targets to achieve by 2030. Target 2 focuses on Restoring 30% of all Degraded Ecosystems.

Faiths are planting millions of trees every year. Faith-based organisations are also major land owners and keen to improve protection, sustainable management, and restoration of their own institutional and agricultural lands. There is an enormous opportunity for conservation and faith groups to work together to support degraded landscapes.

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Working with faith groups

Faith-based tree growing

Forests store more carbon than all the Earth’s exploitable oil, gas and coal... Yet every year we lose roughly 10 million hectares of forests – an area about the size of Portugal.
– WWF Living Planet Report 2022, pg 22

Ten more years to restore the planet

THE UN DECADE ON ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION

There has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than now.

Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet – and its people. To meet the SDGs and to halt and reverse the environmental crisis, our planet’s critical ecosystems must be restored.

In June 2021 the UN launched the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration to highlight this urgency. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part.

Read more about the different types of ecosystem resoration, from forests, farmland and fresh waters, to peatlands, oceans and coasts. And click opposite to watch UNEP's short film about why it is so important to heal the planet.

RESTORING NATURE, RESTORING HOPE

Advancing Ecosystem Restoration through Sacred & Secular Partnerships

Read this paper, Restoring Nature, Restoring Hope: Advancing Ecosystem Restoration through Sacred and Secular Partnerships, by authors from World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF, in collaboration with representatives from UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition, World Vision, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, ProSocial World, Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, Plant with Purpose, OikoDiplomatique, and DiversEarth.

FAITH-BASED TREE GROWING

Implementing tree growing initiatives

WWF, Trillion Trees and UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition have created a guide on tree growing for faith actors, entitled Tree Growing for Conservation and Ecosystem Restoration.

The faith tree growing guide was launched at the CBD COP15 in December 2023, and offers a simple step-by-step approach to assist faith actors in developing and implementing tree growing initiatives. These guidelines are designed to support faith actors around the world who are mobilising their communities and their significant resources, infrastructure and lands to plant and grow thousands of trees.

The Tree Growing guide has been translated into Bahasa, Nepali, Portuguese, Swahili, and Tibetan. Click below to download them.

Tree Growing for Conservation and Ecosys

Bahasa

Nepali

Portuguese

Swahili

Tibetan

TREE GROWING VIDEO

Learn more about the guide in this five-minute video.

'The Christian faith is a source of strong motivation to care for Mother Earth, and tree growing is central to this goal. This Guidebook comes at the right time to support faiths across the world engage in tree growing in ways that complement the global agenda of ecosystem restoration.'
– The Rt. Rev. Joseph Obanyi Sagwe, Bishop of Kakamega Diocese, Kenya

WEBINAR ON TREE GROWING

Find out more about faith-based tree growing initiatives

This webinar on faith-based tree growing features Dr Iyad Abumoghli, Director of UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition; Chantal Elkin, head of WWF’s Belief and Values Programme; Laura D’Arcy, Head of the Trillion Trees Programme; Supreet Kaur, President (India) of Ecosikh; Rev Dr Rachel Mash, Secretary of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, South Africa; and Tom Barasa Wafula, Leader of the Kenya Faith Tree-Growing Project.

You can also read an article on the webinar.

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WHY DO FAITH GROUPS PLANT TREES?

Faith-based organisations plant trees for many reasons: to commemorate auspicious days, as a way to bring their community together and connect with others, to create a sacred forest, to strengthen food security, to green and beautify city spaces, for fuel, and to help reduce biodiversity loss and mitigate climate change.

Faith-based organisations and actors are uniquely placed to undertake meaningful and sustainable tree growing initiatives across a variety of landscapes, carrying with them huge potential to use their existing infrastructure, networks, human capacity and dedication to successfully contribute to forest restoration.

This movement stems from religious beliefs and values that speak to caring for the Earth, recognising the intrinsic value of nature and our need for a balanced relationship with the ecosystems that sustain us.

Farming in harmony with nature to support restoration

FAITH-BASED AGRICULTURE

The restoration of farmlands is a key piece in the mosaic of restoration initiatives in many landscapes. Most farmers in priority biodiversity landscapes are people of strong faith. More and more of these communities are using sustainable agricultural methods driven by their spiritual beliefs and values about caring for the planet, but also in line with agroecology principles that support biodiversity, climate and human wellbeing.