Global Learning Project Assignment 2

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Sustainable development goals. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/our-work/sustainable-development-goals

SDG #15- LIFE ON LAND

This goal aims to promote the sustainable use of land, earth's ecosystems, and prevent further biodiversity loss. It discusses the intertwined relationship between humans and the environment, and the detrimental need to protect the land. Goal #15 is essentially all about conservation and living more sustainably with our planet.

Citation: Abhilash, P. C. (2021, February 17). Restoring the unrestored: Strategies for restoring global land during the UN Decade on ecosystem restoration (UN-DER). MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/201

This article addresses the critical situation concerning deforestation in the Amazon, and the negative impacts it's having on our planet. It discusses that the environmental decline of the Amazon has impacts on human health and local communities. It also stresses how vital the restoration of the Amazon is to the accomplishment of multiple UN SDGs. One in particular being Life on Land, goal #15. Lastly, the article discusses how governmental policy must change to see any real improvement in the Amazon. It also mentions how non-profit initiatives are helpful in combating deforestation on a local and personal level.

3 ways it relates to SDG #15- Life on Land and diversity/leadership Combating deforestation is an essential component of SGD #15, Life on Land. This is both because deforestation really only has negative environmental impacts, and it destroys areas that could be seen as cultural areas. The article directly talks about how deforestation has cascade effects on the environment and the whole ecosystem it takes place in. The article touches on leadership through the emphasis it places on global leadership to act now with policy change to support the restoration of damaged environments. It requires international collaboration to fix our mistakes. Lastly, it relates to SDG #15 as it discusses how we need to be most sustainable with our choices in harvesting necessary resources. This encourages diversity because we would be forced to collect resources through more diverse methods than the ones we are accustomed to.

3 ways the article relates to SDG #15- Life on Land and diversity/leadership The UN-DER is essentially a decade long commitment to everything that the SDG #15 Life on Land represents. It has multiple levels that speak to the various important components of that SDG, like ending deforestation/degradation, and integrating ecosystem and biodiversity into government planning. A way that this article relates to SDG #15 is through the stressed importance of involving people from diverse backgrounds in the accomplishment of this goal. Not only is it important to hear from culturally different voices (like indigenous knowledge), but also just people from all walks of life with various educational experiences. It mentions how local methods and scientific methods should be used to help UN-DER. Lastly, this article touches on how people of different leadership positions should involve themselves in the UN-DER. The article states that all people need to step up “i.e., from politicians to peasants and social workers to scientists” (Abhilash, 2021). Encouraging people in this way helps bring people into leadership position who might have never put themselves there were it not for the UN-DER.

One point from this article is that the writer stresses the fact that 33% of land on earth has been degraded by human activity. This negatively impacts communities across the world and in order to maintain healthy human development, we need to put in the work to restore these degraded lands. Another point from this article is that it introduces the UN, Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN-DER) which spans from 2021-2030. This decade-long initiative aims to restore degraded lands, and prevent further degradation to current undisturbed lands. It emphasizes the need for a total paradigm shift to accomplish its big goals. Lastly, touching on the necessary paradigm shift, it involves the use of community based science, and working with indigenous knowledge in order to make the technological breakthroughs necessary to accomplish the UN-DER goals. Additionally, the involvement of politicians and other leaders will help fulfill these goals at a grassroots level.

Citation: Wan Mahari, W. A. (2020, July 3). Deforestation of rainforests requires active use of UN’s sustainable development goals. Science of The Total Environment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720342030?casa_token=MoMR_gg6xnIAAAAA%3AgjW5OVuMgcN7NAewp0sVbM5cNyrJyLXgD5mxPg3p4UEX_sqKUgZ4Z5UYzlwbd0yQ5rQRPmC7bEM

Below you can see the subgoals for this SDG. As you can see, there is a huge emphasis on things like maintaining biodiversity, and decreasing deforestation. Issues like these have become integrated into our society unfortunately, and call for a total uproot of the way we have been dealing with them for the past 20 years.