PLANET 2024:
CONSERVING AND
RESTORING NATURE
FOR PEOPLE, BIODIVERSITY
AND THE PLANET
PLANET 2024 is a world movement on nature conservation and restoration, driven by a coalition of organizations across the globe. As part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, PLANET 2024 aims to mobilize civil society and businesses to accelerate concrete initiatives to restore the planet.
During the summer of 2024, the world will converge in Paris. Especially during the summer 2024, France will expect over 15 million tourists, 20,000 journalists, and 15,000 athletes. Free Spirit, an actor and official partner of the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, is launching PLANET 2024, a world campaign to raise awareness about preserving and restoring nature. PLANET 2024 aims to create a global movement to limit the degradation of ecosystems. Free Spirit and its partners will thus participate in raising awareness through conferences, art exhibitions, concerts, and sports events not only in Paris but also in all corners of the globe.
WHAT WE DO
RAISING AWARENESS
Raising public awareness about the challenges related to nature restoration.
PRESERVING NATURE
Embracing a daily sustainable lifestyle and preserving the nature that surrounds us.
RESTORING NATURE
Restoring ecosystems (forests, oceans) in order to protect the future of the planet.
COMMITMENT IN 2024
PLANET 2024 : A PROJECT OF THE UNITED NATIONS DECADE
ON ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION 2021-2030
ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS ON ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION 2021-2030
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It aims to halt the degradation of ecosystems, and restore them to achieve global goals. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity. The UN Decade runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change.
PLANET 2024 : PART OF ACTION PLAN OF THE UN DECADE ON ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION 2021-2030
Our organization, the Free Spirit Foundation, is one of the 35 global organizations selected as co-authors and co-leaders of the ACTION PLAN for the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 (released in April 2023).
This action plan sets out the next steps to collectively work towards the goals and vision of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Moving from strategy to action, this plan aims to allow UN Decade partners to mobilise around key priority areas for restoration – the Restoration Challenges – and provide leadership. The Action Plan includes 12 challenges such as biodiversity, climate, local communities, education, and many others.
RESILIENT EARTH 'NEEDS OUR HELP' TO REVERSE DAMAGE, SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IN MESSAGE FOR WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
We are rapidly reaching the point of no return for the planet. We face a triple environmental emergency — biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution.
For too long, humanity has cut down the Earth’s forests, polluted its rivers and oceans, and ploughed its grasslands into oblivion. We are ravaging the very ecosystems that underpin our societies. And, in doing so, we risk depriving ourselves of the food, water and resources we need to survive.
This global movement will bring together Governments, businesses, civil society and private citizens in an unprecedented effort to heal the Earth. By restoring ecosystems, we can drive a transformation that will contribute to the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’
World Environment Day
5th June 2021
WHAT IS ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION ?
Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact. Healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.
Restoration can happen in many ways – for example through actively planting or by removing pressures so that nature can recover on its own. It is not always possible – or desirable – to return an ecosystem to its original state. We still need farmland and infrastructure on land that was once forest, for instance, and ecosystems, like societies, need to adapt to a changing climate.
Between now and 2030, the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems could generate US$9 trillion in ecosystem services. Restoration could also remove 13 to 26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The economic benefits of such interventions exceed nine times the cost of investment, whereas inaction is at least three times more costly than ecosystem restoration.
All kinds of ecosystems can be restored, including forests, farmlands, cities, wetlands and oceans. Restoration initiatives can be launched by almost anyone, from governments and development agencies to businesses, communities and individuals. That is because the causes of degradation are many and varied, and can have an impact at different scales.
WHY ECOSYSTEMS ARE SO IMPORTANT
Ecosystems are the web of life on Earth. An eco- system comprises all the living organisms and the interactions among them and with their surround- ings in a given place. They exist at all scales, from a grain of soil to the entire planet, and include forests, rivers, wetlands, grasslands, estuaries and coral reefs. Cities and farmlands containimportant human-modified ecosystems.
Ecosystems provide us with priceless benefits. They include a stable climate and breathable air; supplies of water, food and materials of all kinds; and protection from disaster and disease. Natural ecosystems are important for our physical and mental health, and for our identity. They are home to precious wildlife. For many, they are a source of wonder and spirituality.
All over the world, ecosystems face massive threats. Forests are being cleared; rivers and lakes polluted; wetlands and peatlands drained; coasts and oceans degraded and overfished; mountain soils eroded; and farmlands and grass- lands overexploited.
Unless we change our ways and protect and restore our ecosystems, we will not only destroy the landscapes we love, we will undermine the foundations of our own well-being and bequeath a degraded, inhospitable planet to future generations.
ABOUT FREE SPIRIT FOUNDATION
Free Spirit Foundation is a non profit organization dedicated to protecting our planet and building a brighter future for our children. Free Spirit is a co-leader of the official Action Plan for the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
Our association is honored to be one of the 35 organizations chosen to co-lead this action plan, alongside notable organizations such as UN Environment, WWF, UNESCO, FAO, IUCN, and the World Bank. The issues raised by the UN program are indeed correlated with the outcome objectives set by Free Spirit in its reforestation program, Re-green the Planet, and its ocean protection program, O’dyssey.
RESTORE NATURE
I AM THE EARTH
PLANET 2024
A GLOBAL CAMPAIGN DEDICATED TO
PRESERVING AND RESTORING THE NATURE ACROSS THE GLOBE
THE NATURE RESTORATION BOOK
More than 100 global experts in nature restoration converge around an inspiring book.
TREE PLANTING CONCERT
More than 250 artists combine their talent for an amazing classical music concert in Paris to restore the forests.
MEDIA TRANSPORTS CAMPAIGN
A nationwide campaign on the entirety of Media Transports’ digital billboards in France, aiming to engage with 4 million people daily.