Healthy landscapes provide us with food, water, clean air, a stable climate, biodiversity, good health, security and happiness. However, a quarter of the world’s land mass is seriously degraded from centuries of deforestation, overgrazing, over exploitation, the building of infrastructure and pollution. Wars and migration are consequences of these problems.

Tonight, the film maker and ecologist John Liu will tell the story of how a degraded area in China the size of the Netherlands was successfully restored in a short time. He will explain why landscape restoration matters to all of us, why it needs urgent implementation and how we can be inspired and empowered to contribute to this restoration effort in our own way.




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The Great Work of Our Time

At certain times in human history the generations alive at the time are called upon to perform heroic deeds. Imagine the transition from “Flat Earth” to “Round Earth” or the end of slavery. Today, we face just such a moment. Human progress and possibly human survival depend on our understanding and actions at this time.

Problems like land degradation, biodiversity loss, toxic pollution and climate change affecting everyone have been sublimated for the short-term profit of a few. Human population is growing by one billion people every twelve years.

Yet for all our problems, the conditions are ripe for humanity to move to a new level of consciousness. If we realize, that knowledge and generosity yield much better outcomes than ignorance and greed, we can work together for mutual benefit. It is possible to restore large-scale degraded landscapes. It is possible to restore ecological function. We now have the technology to make the sum of human knowledge available to every human being on the planet simultaneously and instantaneously. We are called to restore the Earth and the Human Spirit.

This is the Great Work of our Time.

Tonight the film maker and ecologist John D. Liu will share what led him to this vision. It began with John filming the process of restoring a degraded area of land the size of The Netherlands in China. Millennia ago this region was very fertile, lush with vegetation, providing the rising Chinese dynasties with vast natural resources to build their empires. Over the centuries, the Chinese used up these resources unsustainably while unaware that it was their own actions that eroded a once green landscape into a ‘moon like’ landscape, causing loss of biodiversity, poverty and famine.

John shows how it has been possible to restore this large-scale damaged ecosystem in a very short time. The soil was rebuilt, biodiversity came back, while farmers were able to triple their income and hope and inspiration returned to the communities. John, the farmers, the Chinese government and the financer, the World Bank, were astounded by the success. People around the world started inviting John to communicate his experiences, so they could create similar projects. Several examples of how these are progressing will be shared in this presentation.

John will also show how the Commonland Foundation has seen that landscape restoration is not only beneficial to the soil and biodiversity, to the farmers, but how this process can provide a profitable return on investment for businesses. Business cases are being developed to move from a centuries old landscape degradation industry to a landscape restoration industry. It is a win-win situation for Earth and humans alike.

Various actions by individuals and communities around the world show how all of us can contribute to this: whether it is in policy making, business or doing projects in our city or even our back yard. All efforts matter and are needed urgently.

Finally, John will show how landscape degradation is a root cause of conflict and migration, of which the effects are now being felt in the world today. Landscape restoration is a powerful tool to tackle this problem.

This evening is a wake up call. But more importantly it is a message of hope, inspiration and empowerment.


More information:

SG Maastricht: [ Ссылка ]
Talkin'Business: [ Ссылка ]
UM Maastricht: [ Ссылка ]

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