It is restoration day in a village high in the Andes and the mood is festive. After limbering up with a traditional dance, dozens of volunteers each grab an armful of bushy green saplings. Then they clamber onto pickup trucks, motorbikes and horses and stream up a treeless mountainside to plant them. Grassroots reforestation efforts like this one in Ecuador’s Chimborazo Province are the hallmark of Acción Andina, a multi-country initiative to restore native forests along the mountainous 700-kilometer spine of South America. As well as reviving unique mountain landscapes and biodiversity, it is an attempt to work along Indigenous communities to protect their livelihoods and culture from the ravages of climate change – and to slow its progression. Many in the Andes are particularly worried about water security. “Our children, my children, will grow up and have families of their own here,” says Laura Punina, a Kichwa community leader in Chomborazo, which is named for one of the snow-capped volcanoes that dominate the skyline. “I think about that when I am planting. I hope that these trees will someday become a forest and generate more water.” A winning approach Acción Andina was founded in 2018 by the United States of America-based Global Forest Generation and Peruvian non-profit Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) to spur large-scale community-led restoration right across the high Andes. The Acción Andina initiative has helped restore 5,000 hectares of forests across the Andes, creating economic opportunities for local residents. Photo by UNEP/Todd Brown Related Story Fighting fire with forests across the Mediterranean
- Published in
- Kenya
