“Greenchoice is excited to partner with Wetlands International for restoration projects in wetland ecosystems. Wetlands International provides the right mix of in-depth knowledge and action on the ground. During our cooperation we’ve come to realize, more and more, how important functioning wetlands are in sustaining the water and carbon cycles, on which our planet and species depend.”
Wetlands Nature Reserve, Esteros del Iberá, Colonia Carlos Pel, is a bird watching paradise. On 12 August, 2021, the first birdwatching centre of the Iberá Wetlands was inaugurated in Corrientes, Argentina.
Instead of mangrove planting, we are employing around a thousand villagers to remove dikes and allow 2,500 hectares of mangroves to establish naturally on recently abandoned rice fields. The gains for biodiversity and local livelihoods will be considerable. The restoration could also secure a million tonnes of CO2 in the next 30 years, and Greenchoice has pledged not to claim any carbon credits, so cementing the climate gains. The project is one item in our growing portfolio of projects for wetlands conservation and restoration built around innovative partnerships with corporate funders and governments, NGOs and philanthropists, international agencies and local communities. Whether creating sanctuaries for migratory birds in China or preventing fires in the Pantanal wetland of South America, restoring coastal ecosystems across Southeast Asia or improving water management around the oases, lakes and inland deltas of the Sahel, we believe partnerships accelerate and scale up our work, by accessing more funds and growing our influence over wider policymaking and corporate culture.
2021 was a rich year for such collaborations.
Villagers assist in building and maintaining brushwood barriers along the coast of Java, with assistance from Wetlands International. Such actions reduce the risk of future flooding in the region.
In March, we became an official supporting partner of the new UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and unveiled with the NGOs Commonland and the Landscape Finance Lab, the 4 Returns Framework, a methodology for landscape regeneration that connects ecology, community values and economic sustainability for long-term resilience. The launching publication showcased our work with Indian communities over three decades to restore the catchment of Lake Chilika. Building on this, and supported by the COmON Foundation, a private charitable fund, we also embarked on a programme of collaboration to accelerate large-scale regeneration in a portfolio of landscapes. In May, we joined with China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) and provincial governments, on a new initiative to manage and restore wetlands used as stopovers by birds migrating along the country’s east coast. Financed by the Global Environment Facility, the initiative dovetails with our existing work with the NFGA to protect bird-rich wetlands around the Yellow Sea from coastal development.
Ruben Veefkind Head of Sustainability and Nature-based Solutions, Greenchoice
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Wetlands International Annual Review 2021
Wetlands International Annual Review 2021
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