Protect

PROTECT: Keeping Ecosystems Whole

Atossa Soltani and ERA partner Rob de Laet show why the Amazon is the planet’s rain-making machine, and what we lose when it’s cut down.

Key Concepts

Healthy ecosystems are already cooling the planet, cycling water, and storing carbon. Protecting what’s still alive is the fastest climate solution we have. Right now we’re losing it to:

  • Deforestation and logging of old-growth and intact forests.
  • Industrial agriculture that strips soil of life with chemicals and monocultures.
  • Mining, drilling, and pollution that poison land and water.
  • Pushing aside the Indigenous communities who have cared for these places for generations.

Indigenous Leadership

Indigenous peoples are less than 5% of the world’s population, yet their lands hold 37% of Earth’s remaining natural lands. Their knowledge is one of our best guides.

Intact Forests

At least 82% of the world’s remaining forest is degraded. Letting existing forests keep growing, called proforestation, protects the carbon, water, and life they already hold.

Industrial Agriculture

Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and plantation crops break the living soil web and heat up the land. Farming with nature works better.

Mining and Pollution

Communities around the world are defending their land from extraction, and finding ways to heal land that’s already been damaged.

Regenerative Practices

Regenerative farms, ranches, and food forests rebuild soil, bring back water, and welcome biodiversity home.

Room for Nature

Protecting 30% of Earth by 2030 and half by 2050, with connected corridors between wild places, keeps ecosystems working.

Learn from the People Doing the Work

Our mini-conference series brings together leading restoration thinkers to share how protecting and restoring ecosystems can cool the planet.

Explore the mini-conference series