Ecosystem Degradation and the Need for Restoration:

Through the Lens of Environment and Human Health

"The environment and the economy are really two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the
environment, we cannot sustain ourselves." The simplest explanation given by Wangari Maathai for
sustaining with the green peace on a planet worth fighting for.

It is said that the ecosystem that has the maximum amount of diversity is the richest so is proven by
our motherland. But somewhere this interrelated world of organisms and environment is
interrupted by the prevalent disease of degradation. It's gradually a disease if your conscience didn't
consider environment in the hitlist. We as a human being we had opportunities to reflect on our
personal commitment to climate and biodiversity conservation, and promote global action by all for
a sustainable future, so it's our duty to do the restoration process of managing a site to return it to
its historic state in turns of ecosystem health and sustainability.

In general terms; Frame or the formation of living world by both biotic and abiotic components is
called as ecosystem and the dependency of humans on it had led us to form another term called
restoration. Humans have always had a negative outcome from the environment. The dependency
on the environment has caused us to exploit it as natural resources. These resources are put in to
product in essential as well as non-essential goods for the human population. This economical
degradation caused by enormous number of factors includes many and the lead reasons consists of
urbanisation and population contributing to pollution, natural disasters, endangerment of species,
global warming and what not.

In the last century, about half of the emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin resulted from
changes in land use, agricultural practices and food production to respond to such demands.
Extraction of fossil fuels, logging and agriculture are the main activities driving the invasion and
degradation of the tropical forest. There are many pathways through which these activities pose
double risk to our health. As is probably obvious to all of us, the burning of fossil fuels and the
deforestation of tropical forests –mainly triggered by the increasing agricultural need to feed
livestock, – are the main drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss. The potential effects of
climate change on health have been intensively discussed in recent years, and include increases in
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, heat stress, mental health problems, vector-borne diseases
and undernutrition. Away from all the indirect effects on health caused by increased poverty, mass
migration and violent conflict. The effect of biodiversity loss on health is conciliated by complex
mechanisms. Among them, the loss of pollinators safeguards food and nutrition security. Probably
not considered an important risk to our health until now, extractive activities in the rainforest
encourage the presence of human populations in such areas and give rise to an environment in
which there is frequent close interaction between wild fauna and humans. For instance, hunting wild
animals, poaching for local consumption or selling to distant markets is a common practice in such
settlements.

There is a growing realization that today diversity will not be conserved by only the hotspot areas
but whole ecosystem connected with strings needed to be matched in a proper and sustainable way
according to the necessity. Today's century needs to obey the task not to cut down forest but to
irrigate deserts to achieve more, which can be majorly done by the youngsters as platelets starts the
whole journey to forest. Ecological restoration outlines how it can provide enhanced biodiversity
outcomes as well as improve human well-being in degraded landscapes. Majorly restoration should
improve biodiversity conservation, human livelihoods, empower local people and improve
ecosystem productivity. Although many organizations are working like -The National Afforestation
and Eco-Development Board (NAEB) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(MoEFCC) is the focal agency for restoration of the Government of India. Also, In India, Foundation
of ecological security (FES) has played a pioneering role in furthering the concept of Commons as an
effective instrument of local governance, as economic assets for the needy and for the viability of
adjoining farmlands. It has also outlined that by strengthening the institutional dimension, the
collective action spins off from effectively managing natural resources to other spheres of village life
such as education, health and access to economic opportunities.

While 'Chintan' is the organization which works to ensure more responsible consumption of
resources so is the 'Greenpeace India' which is one of the best Indian Environmental NGOs, whose
reach extends to over 55 other countries globally. It is a branch of the Greenpeace environmental
group that has a presence in various continents including Europe, Asia, the Pacific and many more.
Greenpeace India runs four distinct campaigns, namely: Stop climate change, Preserving the oceans,
Sustainable agriculture, Prevention of another nuclear catastrophe. Similarly, “Help Delhi Breathe”
works to restore the pollution crisis in the region and likewise, Clean Air Asia sensitizes over air
pollution to combat it and bring a change. Navdanya, Toxics Link ,Environics Trust, Haara Jeevan are
topmost NGOs working to bring a change through restoration.

The need for this restoration is not only to sustain on our motherland but to make it a better place
which didn't outshares the negative did we had done on it. Which is recently seen. India has an
ambitious target of restoring 26 million hectares of degraded lands in future. Reaching this target
will require certain major enablers. Achieving this scale will need a large number of well-trained
restoration practitioners, restoration ecologists. Subjects in the curriculum for ecological
management. Separate mechanisms and monitoring of programmes to bring awareness through
campaigns may work for the development. The international standards can support in this regard,
with suitable adaptation for Indian conditions. A typical restoration project lasts well over five-six
years, and calls for sustained funding and focus. These enablers will make the difference between
successful restoration and hardships for this change will promote greenery anymore.

Policies can provide a cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable way for India to overcome its
ecological and socio-economic challenges but more than that the human mind is capable enough to
bring a change that ecological balance needs. Like Morrison had become first supermarket to roll out
plastic free fruits and veg areas in many of its stores. The failures identified highlight priorities for
future researches like NEERI in Nagpur always comes with initiatives for motherland. Scuba divers in
Lake Tahoe reportedly collected over 200 pounds of trash in a single day from the area. A group of
scuba divers suited up and headed to California's Lake Tahoe on Friday as part of a six-month clean-
up effort. The group accumulated more than 200 pounds of fishing rods, tires, aluminium cans, beer
bottles, and other trash underwater in just one day. Such acts give us the hope in those black days
that greenery is still alive and we can do much more for our society by proper control over resources
to manage to create better future altogether.