Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Apr 3 2024 (IPS)

The title of this piece is not mine.

It’s from the President of Turkiye calling for a reform of the United Nations Security Council.

It has since become a motto in the UN reform campaign encapsulating the shared resentment at a global system that gives the five Permanent members – The P5 of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – unfair and often destructive veto powers that undermines the very ideals for which the UN was established.

The United Nations was founded after World War 2 and one of its main functions was to ensure that the world did not descend into the same level of inhumanity and cruelty. Dag Hammarskjöld rightly stated: “The UN wasn’t created to take Mankind into paradise, but rather, to save humanity from hell’.

But has the UN really fulfilled that role? Recent events are alluding to a failing global system, especially when a P5 member employs the veto to undermine peace and security.

The roots of the world body are deeply colonial. It was created for a different world to the one we live in right now. Its membership increased from 51 to 193 today. Over the same period, the global population grew from 2.5 to 8 billion.

In 1945 the P5 accounted for 10% of member states and over 50% of the world’s population, within their empires. Now, it accounts for 26% of the world’s population, and just 3% of the U.N. member states.

Even with the 10 additional nonpermanent members, the seats are distinctly Eurocentric. Within this group, the big countries almost always win – Japan has spent 22 years; Brazil 20, and within Africa only Nigeria, with 10 years, comes close.

This allocation, albeit poor, is also reflected, in the secretary-general position itself. Since 1945, 4 out of the 9 secretaries-general have been white European men with no woman in sight. U.N. leaders have sought to address this by diversifying heads of agencies or undersecretaries-general, but individuals are not the answer. Postcolonial and post-Cold War membership has been the U.N.’s only major shift in composition in 75 years.

Could the next shift be a great economic rebalancing?

In 1940, the P5’s share of global GDP was around 45%. Today, the P5 accounts for just 2 percentage points more of GDP—49 percent of the global total.

China’s rise has been remarkable, doubling in importance from accounting for 14% to 33% of the P5’s total wealth. So, in spite of the change in global economics and the wave of independence, the U.N. structure is still anchored in the power structures of 1945. It suffers from the structural inability to compel the P5 countries to act decisively for the greater good and this is often acknowledged as a key justification for change.

The P5 have also failed to, inter alia, distribute economic benefits to the rest of the world. Again, this harkens back to 1945 when the Security Council was conceived on a basis of responsibility and capacity of working collaboratively.

Even if the economics remain the same, the challenges that the potential member states might be deemed responsible for or capable to address now in 2024 are very different to those in 1945 or for another 75 years going forward.

The general sentiment expressed is that no country in the world deserves a permanent seat or veto-based decision-making on behalf of others. They have to be earned, and the criteria for responsibility and capability transparently demonstrated and rewarded.

A reimagined structure would see all 15 seats made temporary, for a set period to provide continuity, with wide, non-regional open competition for each seat, alongside clear, monitored restrictions on lobbying expenses and two-term limits within a set cycle of a couple of decades to reward excellence while avoiding domination.

They will need to be elected by others; prove their worth to others so as to have the moral high ground when tackling world issues transparently like entrenched poverty, pandemics, climate, financial crisis etc..

The P5 will not accept this and nor would they submit to decisions made by others especially as 3 out of the 5 – P5 members have remained out of certain U.N.-based mechanisms; such as the UN General Assembly endorsed International Criminal Court (ICC) decisions. Yet the ICC has contributed to justice for thousands, if not millions of people.

Globally, the U.N. is still regarded as being able to play a guardian role. This is because the world cannot afford another 75 years of unaccountability and inequality. The well-known saying that “power concedes nothing without a demand’ applies not only to domestic politics but also to the international stage.

The Institution needs a reimagined, with a fit-for-purpose structure ready to take head on future challenges in as much as the inequalities of the past can’t and should not set the rules of the present.

IPS UN Bureau

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Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 29 2024 (IPS)

The Republic of Mauritius, an island nation, experienced its latest flash floods since the last bad one in 2013. These floods resulted in the loss of lives and hefty bills for car insurers with over 3000 cars have been damaged.

Unfortunately, we will go through more climate-related traumas because, as an island nation, we are sorely ill-prepared, and we seem to be blithely oblivious to climate challenges, especially when one takes a look at our development trajectory.

There is an urgent need to factor in the resilience of our infrastructure, our adaptation strategy, and the use of appropriate technology to inform and educate our people for better awareness and preparedness. When we look at recent tragedies, we cannot and must not put everything on the back of a changing climate, although I am sure the temptation is great in order to absolve one of his or her responsibilities. Urgent measures need to be put in place to counteract this new reality and also address our vulnerabilities.

There is no doubt that we will experience more devastating cyclones, and they will take our economies back several decades.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the way we urbanise, the resilience of our infrastructure, and how ‘green’ we keep our buildings and landscapes will all underscore how well we adapt to a changing climate.

Locally and in many parts of the world, there is a high proclivity to cut down big swaths of forests, drain the ‘Ramsar-protected’ swamps, which are the lungs of the world; build bungalows on seafronts; sacrifice century-old trees in the name of ‘development’; and century-old drains, which have survived the test of time, are now increasingly seeped in cement!

In many surrounding islands, including Mauritius, buildings are seen popping up on the slopes of mountains. There’s also massive investment in infrastructure projects with no visibility on the ‘Environment Impact Assessments—EIA’ (absence of the Freedom of Information Act in Mauritius prevents the public from accessing these critical documents).

There’s also no visibility in the flood-prone zones locally, which implies that people will keep building in these regions with the surreal consequences we saw last week in Port Louis: cars piling up, flooded cemeteries reaching people’s homes, and people being carried away by the sheer force of the water.

It is becoming abundantly clear that climate-related events will recur, and we, as the human race, have no choice but to adapt to our new realities. Time and time again, the rhetoric of ‘saving the planet’ is mentioned. It has to be brought home to all of us that nature existed before our appearance 200,000 years ago and will do well after we have gone. So let us not be presumptuous enough to even think that we can ‘tame’ or ‘save the planet.’ Our rhetoric must be couched in the following language: ‘How we save ourselves in the light of the crisis we have unleashed!’ That would be more appropriate and much more in line with this truism that is facing us.

Part of our adaptation realities demands a culture of transparency, participatory leadership, promoting greater awareness among the general public on what’s at stake, and more importantly, accountability from those who we vote to decide on our behalf. They cannot suddenly go mum when they are questioned or pass the buck to technical staff, whose roles are often purely advisory, when things start going south. The personal and material losses for the general public are simply too painful to see when entire lifetime efforts and savings are washed away by the gushing waters.

I am a resident of a town called Quatre Bornes, which got badly affected by the recent floods. I am tempted to ask for this ‘confidential’ EIA report for the Quatre Bornes tram project so that we can be enlightened on the remedial actions going forward.

Maybe those who were at the helm in 2016 when the decision was taken to start this mega project can enlighten us! No?

But this is where “realpolitik” kicks in.

Those who were vociferously against this project during the electoral campaign when they were in opposition (that was before they switched sides and joined the winning party) are now its greatest defenders.

Some of those who actioned the decisions when in government are now in opposition and are expressing outsized aspirations for higher posts … hmm … at the next general elections??.

Really?

Transparency, Justice and Accountability are the virtues that the public demands What we certainly DO NOT need are empty rhetoric and promises … The survival of our children and grandchildren depends on it, and we have NO right to sacrifice their future through our inaction.

IPS UN Bureau

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A view of an artificial installed at Mon Choisy Beach to combat soil erosion and create resilience. The installation will break up the waves before they reach the shore and will also act as a habitat for fish. Credit: Reuben Pillay/Climate Visuals Countdown

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Sep 4 2023 (IPS)

The Africa Climate Summit 2023 is expected to start with renewed hope. In its 60+ years of post-independence history, Africa has contributed around 3% of Green House Emissions, accounts for approximately 2.6% of global trade, and less than 3% of the world’s GDP in 2021.

Home to 1.4 billion people with a median age of 16, the continent continues to suffer from stalling multilateral trade negotiations, and the ‘death of the Doha round’ has given rise to unprecedented forms of protectionism, unilateralism, a lack of political leadership to embrace and nurture multilateralism. Unfair competition, unilateral partitioning of Africa into Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), and skewed intellectual property rights have resulted in an international trade system that disproportionately favours wealthy economies.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

The emerging trade-climate change measures will only further restrict Africa’s participation in global trade markets. So, to tackle the looming climate crisis, the question is as follows: Should Africa still depend on the ‘generosity’ of the global north? Their inability to meet the $100 billion pledge reveals their moral reluctance to acknowledge developed countries’ contribution to climate change.

Yet to transition to a greener future, Africa must access affordable public and private funding, coupled with debt relief. These shifts are central to building capacity for sustained transformative growth and resilience in the face of climate challenges.

Developed countries have resisted fundamental reforms to support the developing world with the climate emergency. Innovative global development finance ecosystems are needed to unlock equitable international financing flows while preserving the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries to pursue development pathways unique to their circumstances and realities.

Africa’s position is constrained by a lack of affordable, reliable, and sufficient finance, juxtaposed with a debt crisis compounded by climate challenges. Rather than allocating increased funds to adaptation efforts, the majority of it gets directed towards mitigation which benefits financiers and lenders and thus depriving countries of a voice.

Africa’s economy is vulnerable, especially post-pandemic. The external debt has exceeded $1 trillion in 2021. It detracts from African governments’ ability to sustain meaningful socio-economic gains. Those with a pessimistic view of Africa tend to label the debt issue as an African problem disconnected from the exploitative policies of developed nations, but the true concern lies with the developed nations. They possess significant privileges to issue global reserve currencies leading to highly imbal­anced distribution of international liquidity, as well as exorbitant interest rates and capital outflows driven by the monetary policies of affluent economies.

So, whenever faced with liquidity constraints, Africa has no choice but to turn to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost foreign exchange reserves. In the international arena, climate financing is becoming more commercial than concessional.

The USA is hindering the recapitalisation of the World Bank for geopolitical considerations with the unfortunate outcome of deepening structural gaps and costly financing for Africa. Thus, Africa is compelled to seek loans from commercial entities with the high cost of borrowing impeding investments.

The issuance and recycling of SDRs issued by the IMF as a means for enhancing available climate finance is drawing global attention. IMF’s re-channelling of idle SDR should be used to help developing countries with much-needed finance.

The Bridgetown Initiative encapsulates many such proposals, including the restoration of debt sus­tainability; long-term debt restructuring with low interest rates; increase in official sector-development lending; mobilise more in green private sector investment; reform the trade system to support global green and just transformations.

African countries are paying an unnecessary premium on their cost of capital and not attracting sufficient foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in innovative areas and for global public goods. Africa’s fiscal and tax architecture suffers from vulnerabilities, while the global tax system is still built on historic power asymmetries.

Developed countries largely devised international rules that resonate with their own economic interests. Furthermore, the application of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) strategies, the digital economy, and climate-related measures, such as the European Union’s (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), undermine multilateral approaches and affect the fiscal sovereignty of African economies.

Voluntary carbon markets, including the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative, Sovereign wealth funds could unlock much-needed finance for undervalued assets and services. Africa’s own development banks, the partnership and investment proposed by the BRICS/New Development Bank, and the private sector are also essential sources of long-term financing, and tapping into them could enable Africa’s self-directed growth.

There is a globally recognised need to shift, unlock, scale, and mobilise new forms of ‘fit for purpose’ finance to deliver on climate agreements and sus­tainable development goals. The priority of priorities for African countries is affordable, predictable, accessible finance at scale.

Finally, in building a financial infrastructure that is relevant for all, African countries should not be passive receptors of international reforms and debates.

They must have the authority to lead in the direction they choose; they must have that voice and, more importantly, the collective interests at local, regional as well as at the international level.

It is only then that Africa will be compensated for the harm that it did not commit!

Note: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the former President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Mar 30 2023 (IPS)

On 12th March 2023, The Republic of Mauritius celebrates 55 years of post-independence history. It would be an understatement to just say that there has been a lot of water under the bridge on our journey to self-determination!.. Indeed, we have made massive progress since we lowered the Union Jack and unfurled our own flag. It was and remains a moment of great pride whenever I see our flag in any international event, I participate in.

We are a small vulnerable island, deprived of natural resources and at the time of independence, we were flanked with a monoculture economy, high unemployment, low education and low income were amongst the major challenges. We had been relegated to being a basket case. Even by Nobel prize winners concluded that because of our isolation from the then major capitals; climate challenges etc. we were doomed at a time when our per capita income hovered around 200USD.

We were more a recipe for disaster than that of a success story. Still over time, with leadership and vision, we proved to the world that another outcome was feasible, but more importantly, that profound transformation was possible, and we succeeded within one single generation.

We became the shining star especially South of the Sahara and our experience brings useful insights into the dynamics and pitfalls of an economic transformation journey. Nonetheless, this transformation has been conducted in such a manner that the economic landscape, society and institutions were modernised simultaneously, albeit at various speeds, taking into consideration the political, human, institutional and economic realities and constraints of the time. The approach was largely inclusive because the major asset then and now remains our diverse, talented population.

Our story had been based on the following foundational stones: political leadership, strong institutions, ethnic diversity, a class of versatile indigenous entrepreneur and a well-structured private sector engaged in dialogues on policy matters. Coupled with this, the balance has been between economic and social objectives, with a strong focus on the human capital, through free education since 1976, free health care, and a minimum basic social safety net for the most vulnerable.

Still the strength of our institutions were a key guarantee for investment, entrepreneurship and innovation. While acknowledging that significant progress has been achieved in the last 50+ years, the global dynamics call for more and more reforms if our country wants to avoid the middle-income trap and join the club of high-income countries within the realm of a changing climate. There are already indications of worrying signals: the average growth rate has been stabilizing at less than 5%, necessary to enable incremental changes, but insufficient to steam up the engine to the next level. Beyond the redesigning and re-engineering of the economic landscape, some implementable reforms will have to be addressed.

The main weaknesses are found in our education system. While we have a 99% enrolment rate at the primary level, but what comes next is disappointing. Let’s take the hypothetical 100 children entering our primary school, 80 will manage to pass their primary school exam to enter secondary school; only 60 will manage to succeed after the first 3 years, 40 will pass the Grade 5 (O-level) exams and with only 20-30 will reach the end of the secondary school cycle. This is in total contradiction to the requirements of a high-income country; one that ambitions to attract High Tech investment. The curriculum needs to move away from being too academic and with little openings for technical and vocational training.

Also, labour market reforms need to ensure flexibility. A diversified economic base only makes sense if it is possible for people to move across sectors. Currently, the stiffness of labour market and employment schemes that go with it, makes it difficult for people to move around. The basic principle must remain the protection of the people as opposed to jobs.

Finally, Mauritius must step up efforts to plug into regional and global value chains. We must continue to build on the regional market and must upgrade our participation in the global value chains, by capturing activities with higher value addition. Our regional market penetration remains weak. In the last decade it has been estimated that Mauritius export to the SADC region amounted to only 1.3% while its imports from the SADC region amounted to 2.5%. Similarly, we still have too big a bias towards our traditional markets to export low value added products.

Competition over concepts rather than over processes will be increasingly necessary to have a meaningful role. To achieve this, increased investment in quality education, innovation, research and development and technology, the appropriate ecosystem for start-ups, is crucial. We are at a crossroad in our economic transformation. The latter can remain a continuous process as we have had a good track record so far. The challenge for our country now lies in combining sustained domestic reforms with efforts required to keep up with international trends to become a global player. This demands that we align all our talents, competence and resources.

Next door to us, a giant is waking up – The African continent and the AfCFTA presents a huge opportunity, for, inter alia, our manufacturing sector, provided we engage with her, like in any relationship, seriously, and not just pay lip service. We have to keep reminding ourselves that the world we embraced in 1968, is now fast mutating. We were born in a bipolar world and now living in an increasingly multipolar world. Our foreign policy must remain agile as it is going to be a rocky road especially as we will have to count the presence of new emerging African middle-income countries that are increasingly catching up with their economic trajectory.

We will only succeed if we manage to navigate through competition, build trust and strengthen our institutions, acknowledge our diversity as strength, ensure meritocracy and by turning challenges into potential opportunities as ONE people and ONE Nation, in Peace, Justice and Liberty.

IPS UN Bureau

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Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius , Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

When countries improve their Global ranking, there is rejoicing within the community that progress has been made at last.. but has it and why does it matter ?

Unfortunately, upon careful analysis of the World Economic Forum predictions, the world will not reach gender parity until the year 2156 – date pushed back by another 36 years as a result of the pandemic. We can take comfort in the fact that the WEF prediction is based on a straight-line extrapolation of the trend over the past fifteen years into the future. What is perhaps of greater value is the collection and aggregation of the range of indices on gender equality from around the world, from education to wages, health and politics. On the latter field, the news have been disappointing. While some countries like Iceland have been closing the gap, others like Japan lag way behind.

Yet, progress has come from unexpected quarters – unexpected because the ingrained stereotype would have it that the Arab world would not allow female presence in politics. In 2019, the UAE’s Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, issued Presidential Resolution No. (1) ordering equal representation of Emirati women in the Federal National Council. This decision saw female representation jumped from 23% in 2019 to 50% today.

How to handle this disparity? Is it time for quota? Also why do we need female representation at all? This is a question that the developing world no longer asks especially when it comes to issues like food security, climate change amongst other issues. At COP 26, the link has finally been made between gender equality and climate change.

It has been said time and time again that the effects of climate change put women at increased risk of hunger, food insecurity and violence. This threatens women’s income, health and way of life. Women feed their families and are the prime caregiver especially in developing countries. Entire households depend on them to provide food, fuel and water which is expected to become scarcer as temperature rise.

Women’s ability to financially provide for themselves and their families will also be affected and they make up 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty. In Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, over 60 per cent of women are employed in agriculture, often in labour-intensive activities, unpaid or poorly remunerated. In sub-Saharan Africa, women comprise 30 to 80 per cent of the agricultural labour force, and produce about 4-25% less in the value of agricultural produce per unit of cultivated land than their male counterparts. The gender gap in agricultural productivity exists because women often have unequal access to crucial agricultural inputs such land, labour, knowledge, fertilizer and improved seeds. This has implications for the income, health and nutrition of both women and children.

Also 70% of the women work in the agricultural sector which stands to be devastated from increasingly unreliable weather and increased intensity and regularity of extreme weather events and by way of example, the island of Madagascar has witnessed four large and intense cyclones since early 2022.

The chances of women escaping the situation is bleak. As the effects of climate change intensify, the opportunities for women to gain the resources, skills and education may fall out of reach. It was expected that in 2021 alone, climate-related events would prevent at least 4 million girls in lower-income countries from completing their education. If current trends continue, that number will reach 12.5 million by 2025.

However, tackling climate change to resolve these issues will not be impossible if women are not empowered to be included in the discussions and, more importantly, the decisions. As key contributors to communities, as carers and activists, as well as in local food systems and in the home, women are in a unique position to drive longer-term climate resilience.

Yet, women continue to be marginalised. Women make up only 19% of IMF and World Bank boards and less than 30% of national parliamentarians. The gender pay gap also continues to be an issue. Worldwide, women share 35% of the global income, an increase of only 5% since 1990. The responsibility and opportunity to tackle gender inequality and climate change lie in the hands of both governments and the private sector.

Funds pledged at COP26 will go towards local communities and grassroots women’s groups in Asia Pacific to challenge gender inequalities, and to help adapt to the impacts of climate change. Given the urgency and magnitude of the global challenges that face the world, we must do better at harnessing the leadership, ability and aptitude of women, recognizing their unpaid care and domestic work, and ensuring gender-responsive economic policies for job creation, poverty reduction and sustainable, inclusive growth.

All institutions have their role to play. Private companies can tackle issues both externally and internally. Internally, they can work on the changes of the gender split in board rooms, correcting the gender pay gap, working to end discrimination, and creating a work culture that empowers women.

Externally, companies can invest in projects that directly support the development of women as well as form partnerships with charities and communities to give girls and women the education, skills and opportunities they need to succeed.

The more we talk about these issues, the greater the awareness there will be.

Greater awareness means there is more we can do, together, to address these pertinent issues and no matter how small the actions, they can build momentum until they have a positive impact for women and girls around the world because empowering women is no longer just an ethical issue. It is now an economic one. Economic gender parity ensure gains not only for economies of both developed countries and developing countries.

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Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jul 8 2021 (IPS)

June 2021 marked the launch of UN Decade on Ecosystem restoration. This effort aims at reversing the damage that us humans have caused and are still causing to Nature. It is clear that we have to reverse course and spare no effort into making this ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’ a success. Preserving Nature and maintaining its services are critical for our survival on this planet and for our livelihoods.

Unfortunately, the World Bank is already forecasting that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the collapse of ecosystem services will result in contraction of GDP by 9.7% annually by 2030. This dovetails with the seminal work on of Prof. P. Dasgupta entitled ‘The Economics of Biodiversity” which reports that “Humanity now faces a choice: we can continue down a path where our demands on Nature far exceed its capacity to meet them on a sustainable basis; or we can take a different path, one where our engagements with Nature are not only sustainable but also enhance our collective wellbeing and that of our descendants”.

We could ask – How did we get there?

At the heart of the problem lies deep-rooted, widespread institutional failure. The solution starts with the understanding that and accepting a simple truth: our economies are embedded within Nature and not external to it. Yet, every single year, we lose ecosystem services worth more than 10 per cent of our global economic output. A third of the world’s farmland is degraded, about 87% of inland wetlands worldwide have disappeared since 1700, and a third of commercial fish species are overexploited and one million species are on the brink of extinction. Degradation is already affecting the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people – almost 40% of the world’s population.

Ecosystem restoration is needed on a large scale as it delivers on multiple benefits and helps us deliver on the sustainable development agenda. Restoration will no doubt curb the risk of mass species extinctions and future pandemics. Restoration of forest landscapes, farming, livestock and fish-producing ecosystems require special care and have to be brought to a healthy and stable state. Reviving ecosystems and other natural solutions could contribute over 1/3 of the total climate mitigation needed by 2030.

For this effort to be sustained on a global scale, institutions require sustained investments and there is growing evidence that it more than pays for itself. Policy makers and financial institutions are only slowly realizing the huge need and potential for green investment.

Agroforestry revival alone could increase food security for 1.3 billion people. Countries like Costa Rica has seen ecotourism grow to account for 6% of GDP by doubling its forest cover.

If by 2030, Mesoamerica and Indonesia could add 2.5BN $ to their economy simply by restoring coral reefs. A restored population of marine fish can deliver a maximum sustainable yield that could increase fisheries production by 16.5 million tonnes, an annual value of USD 32 billion.

Actions that prevent, halt and reverse degradation are needed if we are to keep global temperatures below 2°C. This implies better management of some 2.5 billion hectares of forest, crop and grazing land (through restoration and avoiding degradation) and restoration of natural cover over 230 million hectares.

Large-scale investments in dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and water management will make a vital contribution to building resilience to climate change, generating benefits around four times the original investment.

With careful planning, restoring 15% of converted lands while stopping further conversion of natural ecosystems could avoid 60% of expected species extinctions. Achieving successful ecosystem restoration at scale will require deep changes, including the adoption of inclusive wealth as a more accurate measure of economic progress. This will rest on the widespread introduction of natural capital accounting thus creating an enabling environment for private sector investment, including public-private partnerships.

Progress can be made by increasing the amount of finance for restoration, including the elimination of perverse subsidies that incentivize further degradation and fuel climate change, and also through initiatives that will raise awareness of the risks posed by ecosystem degradation.

Such bold transformations will happen when we start reforming agriculture; by changing how we build our cities; by decarbonizing our economies and by moving to circular economic models.

So far, none of the agreed global goals for the protection of life on Earth and for halting the degradation of land and oceans have been fully met. UNEP report of 2021 reports that only 6 of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets have been partially achieved. Ecosystem restoration alone cannot solve the crises we face, but it is key to averting the worst of them.

We need to rethink and re-create a balanced relationship with nature, not only by conserving ecosystems that are still healthy, but also by urgently and sustainably restoring degraded ones.

For too long, we have been using the planet as a sink for our waste products, such as carbon dioxide, plastics and other forms of waste including pollution. Degradation is undermining our hard-won development gains and is threatening the well-being of today‘s youth and future generations, while making national commitments increasingly more difficult and costly to reach.

We need to change how we think, act and measure success as transformative change is possible – we and our descendants deserve nothing less.

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
6th President, Republic of Mauritius

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