How do you restore an entire ecosystem at scale? Eroded desertified landscapes: can they be healed?

Journalist, filmmaker, and environmental educator John D. Liu is the Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation and Founder of the Ecosystem Restoration Camps Movement. He is best-known for his documentaries on the restoration of the Loess Plateau, like Hope in a Changing Climate and Green Gold. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, John joins Ross to explain how human activity caused the degradation of the Loess Plateau, describing how it went from being one of the most beautiful places on Earth to a barren landscape where the poorest Chinese people lived.

John discusses what made the Loess Plateau restoration so successful, offering insight around how the Chinese government engaged the people there and how the project design balances functional space for agriculture with land dedicated to natural regeneration. Listen in to understand how John thinks about restoring inherently complex ecosystems and learn how you can get involved in John’s work to transform our economy and facilitate ecosystem restoration all over the world.

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Resources:

The Weather Makers

‘The Holy Grail of Restoration: Mending the Sinai Peninsula’ in Kosmos Journal

John’s Academia Page

John on Twitter

The Great Work of Our Time Documentary on Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration

World Bank Story on the Loess Plateau Restoration

Presencing Institute

Theory U

International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Rothamsted Research Institute

University of the West of England

Netherlands Institute of Ecology

Elinor Ostrom

Kyoto Protocol

Kate Raworth

Paul Kingsnorth

Wendell Berry

Willem Ferwerda

John F. Nash