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A call to action

Building blocks for a new vision for Earth 2025

We urgently need a New Vision for Earth. We ask the international community, policymakers, public and private financing, and the private sector to adopt these global actions backed by knowledge and the latest research.

Restore Landscapes and Seas Across All Scales

The Earth’s lands and oceans have been severely degraded by centuries of deforestation, mining, fossil fuel extraction, industrial and urban expansion and resource accumulation. We must conserve and restore our landscapes and seascapes to protect the ecosystems they harbor and the livelihoods they sustain. We call on policymakers to pass concrete, legally binding measures to halt degradation and urgently and holistically implement commitments to restore degraded landscapes.

  • We call upon all stakeholders to combine their efforts towards conservation and restoration, as well as developing incentive programs to accelerate and amplify ongoing efforts.
  • We urge public and private financiers to provide funding for land, stewards and restoration initiatives of all scales.

 

Unite for Food and Seed Sovereignty

In the face of conflict, the climate and biodiversity crisis and pandemics, our current global food system has proven vulnerable to external shocks and damaging to both ecosystems and communities. We must strengthen their resilience by rethinking and redesigning our food systems and value chains.

  • We call on all stakeholders to unite in building sovereign, sustainable and localized food systems that produce a reliable supply of diverse, nutritious crops using locally available resources for all.
  • We call on policymakers and financiers to address policy gaps and ensure coherence amongst sectors while redirecting harmful subsidies to incentivize the sustainable production and consumption of food.
  • We encourage scaling practices and accessible tools for farmer-led regenerative agriculture to restore soil health.

Transform Financial Models to be Transparent, Inclusive and Appropriate

It is pertinent for financial institutions to implement new inclusive, sustainable, transparent, and appropriate financial models that are contextualized to social, economic, and ecological realities at local, regional, and global levels.

  • We call for scaled up public financing in the form of grants for sustainable endeavors: climate action, sustainable land use, and restoration of ecosystems.
  • We call on public and private financiers to implement new efficient blended financing models that integrate verified sustainability data into risk assessment and investment decisions, redirecting capital toward proven sustainable endeavors, nature-based solutions, sustainable land use, ecosystems restoration, and mitigation and adaptation initiatives and mechanisms.
  • We call on the financial institutions to financial services to all, including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and smallholders.
  • Funding must be long-term, flexible, gender-inclusive and grounded in mutual accountability.

Build a Well-being Economy Within Planetary Boundaries

Planetary boundaries refer to the limits of nine key global systems that keep the Earth livable for humans, of which seven have now been crossed. At the same time, our current economic model, energy system and indicators solely focus on economic growth without taking these planetary boundaries into account. 

  • We must phase out fossil fuels and related subsidies and rethink the energy system.
  • We advocate a well-being economy, characterized by a people and community-centric, ecologically balanced, and culturally sensitive way of living, and request policymakers to use and develop alternative indicators in addition to the GDP with sustainability at the forefront to measure human and planetary health.
  • We encourage governments, all policymakers, and the private sector to ensure that all decisions and sectors operate within planetary boundaries.                 

A More Just and Accountable Digital Era

The world is connected, and we live in an age of digital opportunities. While the internet provides a world of possibilities, we must navigate its environmental costs and social risks – from higher resource demands to the spread of disinformation and fundamental violations of privacy. Regulation and corporate accountability are crucial to ensure this era benefits all.

  • We call for a digital space that ensures free, equitable and open access to science and knowledge for everyone. 
  • Decision-making must be evidence-based, integrating diverse knowledge systems. We encourage a collaborative approach to data and research that enables and guarantees that a wide spectrum of stakeholders participate, co-create and co-benefit from the knowledge underlying these innovations.
  • We call governments to enact regulations that ensure the internet and the broader digital space are safe, democratic, and equitable with clear safeguards for privacy, data sovereignty, and collective rights.
  • We encourage the private sector to create accessible and affordable technologies, AI and innovations that are co-created and built with the stakeholders they impact, respecting laws and safeguards for privacy and collective rights and be available in local languages.
  • We ask the international community and private sector to recognize and value the lived experience, traditional knowledge systems, and innovations of Indigenous Peoples and those of local communities. We ask that they be acknowledged, consulted, respected and rewarded for their expertise and vital contributions to society and the health of ecosystems.

Advocate for Rights in All Decision Making

Indigenous Peoples and local communities have sustainably managed their lands and natural resources for millennia. But despite their immense contribution to safeguarding the planet’s biodiversity, they are too often excluded from land use decision-making. Within these communities, women face even greater barriers to participation and recognition of their rights.  

  • We must ensure fair access to land and natural resources and respect the legitimate rights of people who live on and from the land.
  • We call on policymakers to uphold and promote the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to their lands, territories, and resources.
  • We must guarantee the full, effective and equal participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in climate and biodiversity decision-making, treaties and agreements.
  • We must ensure women have equal rights to own and manage land, protected by fair laws and access to justice.
  • We must invest in women’s leadership and participation, so their knowledge and voices shape a more just and sustainable future.
  • Ensuring secure land tenure and inclusive governance is essential to honor the wisdom of elders and ancestors and sustain life on Earth.

Adaptation Beyond Resilience

With global temperatures already rising, we can no longer simply aim to resist shocks and return to a pre-existing norm. We must adapt forward, transforming our systems to create new ways of thriving in a climate-altered and biodiversity-threatened world. This requires going beyond resilience to proactive transformation.

All stakeholders must take bolder action. 

  • We call on governments and the private sector to be held accountable for delivering on the energy transition, reshaping productive chains, and guaranteeing sustainable consumption.
  • We encourage civil society, communities, and individuals to lead a cultural shift in habits and expectations, building collective capacity for a different future. Youth have the right to participate in and co-design their own future by taking an active and equal part in today’s decision-making.

A New Vision Centered in Care

Our prevailing economic model, based on accumulation and treating nature as a limitless resource, fuels high-carbon, consumption-intensive lifestyles. We champion a new vision rooted in care: a shift towards deliberate social practices for our planet, our communities, and all forms of life. This requires breaking the ‘extract-work-and-spend’ cycle and reprioritizing our daily lives to free up time and space for lower-impact living and strengthening the social capital for effective collective action. 

  • We call for policies and corporate cultures that enable time sovereignty to disrupt the high-impact ‘extract-work-and-spend’ cycle and support sustainable lifestyles.
  • We call for active investment in building communities based on trust, care and shared values as the foundational driver of collective action for local environmental stewardship.

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