The Dialogues
Roundtables on Refugees & Restoration
Two roundtable discussions on the 5th of June 2021, have shed a light on the question and the possibility of combining restoration efforts with refugee assistance. Restoring and re-greening the earth has many benefits, socially and also economically. Tina Teucher, the initiator and facilitator of the event, pointed out in her introductory presentation, that the restoration of degraded ecosystems can generate an additional value of 9 trillion US Dollars and remove 13 to 26 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Additionally, bold action and more durable refugee assistance is needed as the number of forcibly displaced people has already reached record-levels. Nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration activities above all have an enormous potential to enhance the living conditions of refugees, ecologically as well as mentally. The encouraging news is that good examples of knowledge and experience already exist!
Watch Roundtable Recordings on Refugees & Restoration on YouTube
Diverse stakeholders from experienced projects, refugee initiatives, development aid organizations, funders, and investors examined in the roundtable discussion, how we can effectively collaborate and inspire each other, nurture already existing solutions, share knowledge, and eventually look for possibilities to scale-up good practices from the bottom-up (and top down). This article is a summary of these roundtable discussions, and serves as a starting point to document and share knowledge and progress about the Refugees and Restoration initiative.
For the roundtables’ programmes click here.
Text on roundtables by Melissa de Raaij, co-edited by Tina Teucher
Next Steps, Ways Forward
The momentum is here, the motivation is here, and the people with the right knowledge and experience are here. Therefore, it’s time to take action! Possible ways to move forward which came out during the roundtable discussions were to:
- Create a network/platform where knowledge and experiences can be shared easily worldwide with all practitioners.
- Set-up one or more demonstration project(s) which measures the impact in such a way that the outcomes will be able to unlock financial flows for similar projects.
- Organize follow-up events to monitor the progress of this initiative and to keep inspiring each other.
- Keep each other informed in the meantime through sharing interesting links and providing space for more in depth interviews with inspiring actors.
Explore Key Messages of the Roundtables visually on one Page!
Key statements of participants, visualized on a white board (Mural):
