Compendium Vol. 4 No. 1: Introduction

In a fitting juxtaposition, 2020 has brought us both the Covid-19 pandemic and the eve of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). As we have learned from infectious disease research, ecosystem degradation drives the emergence of novel human diseases that become pandemic. In this issue of the compendium we delve into research examining the connection between biodiversity loss and infectious disease, along with another set of articles on how best to restore the increasingly dangerous degraded lands that surround us. Perhaps a decade of restoring ecosystems as if our lives depend on it will deliver us to a gentler world come 2030.