Hands Planting

Now that it is widely recognised that there is a real threat to freshwater supplies and the global water cycle, all possible measures to secure and preserve these, needs to be applied.

We all need the long-term sustainability of the global water cycle. It is not a luxury. Our lives and the long-term continuum of life on Earth are utterly dependent upon this cycle. It is imperative that the global community unites to address and resolve this common threat, this common worldwide water crisis. Although around the world there are presently many environmental, social and economic problems, freshwater underpins all of these. Our solving them is dependent upon us solving the problems affecting the global water cycle. Otherwise we will see short-term advantages for a few and long-term crisis, affecting virtually all humanity and most of life on Earth. Therefore safeguarding the global water cycle needs to become the top global priority. The process for achieving this will require that the ecosystems, which are necessary for maintaining and regulating this cycle, are protected, restored and preserved.

Because mountains and their forests are high up in the water cycle, they are particularly crucial and have a far-reaching impact upon the quantity and quality of freshwater available worldwide.

“Given their important role in water supply and regulation, the protection, sustainable management and restoration of mountain ecosystems will be essential.”
  

Download: UNESCO, 2013, ‘Climate Change impacts on Mountain Regions of the World.pdf  

Unfortunately these mixed mountain forests have been depleted on a momentous scale globally and monoculture does not provide the mixed variety of plants needed for high altitude precipitation.Particular emphasis needs to be given to the importance of the diversity of these ecosystems. It is the mountain forests with mixed biodiversity that provides the various elements that are so fundamental for regulating the regenerative and renewable functions of the global water cycle. It is also important to note that restoring and preserving these ecosystems will have a dual benefit, as it will also impact upon climate worldwide. Mountains ecosystems are key elements in global climate regulation.

Mountain regions worldwide need to be reforested with mixed indigenous trees and plants. This is a matter of urgency and needs to be done as fast as possible.

Therefore we have created a sustainable model for restoring and maintaining mixed mountain forests, which can be replicated worldwide in order to safeguard the global water cycle and help to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. We have termed this model ‘The Green Groves and Green Corridors Method’. The model entails creating and maintaining an interlinking network of community managed green groves and green corridors that facilitates the fast spread of biodiversity throughout mountain regions.This model has been formulated considering the integration of modern and traditional conservation methods along with long-term sustainability concepts.

It combines the conservation methods of sacred groves, spring sanctuaries, green-corridors, green-belts permaculture and companion planting. Recognising the crucial role of mountain communities, this will be a way by which these communities are supported, empowered and funded. It will also be a way of linking remote mountain villages together in an interconnected common project. The plants grown in the green corridors would be those with important ecological properties as well as those that provide for the specific needs of the local communities (e.g. food, medicines, fuel, fodder, biomass, phytoremediation etc.).

A global initiative that is crucial in both preserving the water cycle and stabilizing climate change is very pertinent and needed in this time of environmental instability.

It is imperative that the global community unites to address and resolve this common threat, this common worldwide water crisis. Although around the world there are presently many environmental, social and economic problems, freshwater underpins all of these. Our solving them is dependent upon us solving the problems affecting the global water cycle. Otherwise we will see short-term advantages for a few and long-term crisis, affecting virtually all humanity and most of life on Earth. There is still time to apply the needed solutions if we act without delay.

“Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage; lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent Environmental degradation.”
  

Download: UNCED, Rio 1992, Principe 15, Report on UN Conference on Environment and Development.pdf  

It is important to note that restoring and preserving mixed indigenous mountain region forests will have a dual benefit, as it will also impact upon climate worldwide. Healthy mountains ecosystems are key elements in global climate regulation.

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