Need advice on carbon offsetting & biodiversity conservation?
It's the UN decade of ecological restoration. We have considerably altered our planet, but negative impacts can still be halted and reversed. Countries, companies, private people and organisations thrive to minimise their environmental footprint and are taking action to store carbon via reforestation & restoration project.
The message is clear: First and foremost, companies, governments and private people need to reduce their environmental impacts. Then steps can be taken to 'compensate' for emissions or biodiversity losses through nature based solutions, such as reforestation or ecological restoration.
There's a myriad of restoration/reforestation providers out there, but can they achieve what they promise? Which one should you pick? Which one will make an impact, is transparent and aligned with biodiversity and carbon commitments?
I help to advice companies on how to approach this problem holistically, what projects to partner with, be it for carbon offsetting or other environmental commitments. To me it is paramount that restoration projects thrive to achieve the triple goals of biodiversity conversation, carbon storage & improvement of livelihoods!
My mission is to make sure that the right kind of restoration projects happen in the right place & for the right reasons. It's not all about tree planting, there's a plethora of ecosystems that we humans have degraded and that deserve restoration, from wetlands to grasslands, salt marshes to mountain habitats.
As an ecologist by training and restoration scientist, I have so far advised a handful or organisations, amongst other Zappistore and the German Rowing National team. Reach out to me to discuss potential steps & opportunities. I will provide 60min of initial free consulting and we can see where we take it from there!
Now it's your opportunity to be part of #GenerationRestoration.
Check out these key resources to learn about ecosystem restoration
Useful resources
Open access data & science are my 21st century love story!
Below I share information on great data portals and tools for ecology & conservation!
Restor - an innovative platform to catalyze action in the global restoration movement
A science-based open data portal where restoration practitioners can enter & exchange data on their restoration projects and connect with each other.
Provides satellite-data based information on forest restoration potential and success!
Google Earth Engine
A planetary-scale data portal and processing engine containing all sorts of satellite imagery, climate models and land use data.
Download, process and model large-scale satellite data using the earth engine JAVA language. All powered by google's cloud service. A number one tool for environmental research these days.
Monitoring deforestation & forest recovery
Deforestation is one of the most harmful processes of global change, resulting in biodiversity loss, desertification and exacerbating climate change.
Globalforestwatch.org tracks deforestation across the world by using satellite data in a very clever way! They also provide data on biodiversity and climate - all satellite and big data-base derived!
Check it out!
Functional ecotypes
Biodiversity is not only the diversity of species, but also the multitude of functions and processes in ecosystems. This functional perspective is key to understand how species will respond to climate and global change and to design meaningful conservation interventions!
Check out this magnificent resource by the IUCN providing a categorisation of the Earth's ecosystem types and functional groups.
