To tackle the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, the countries of Africa’s Sahel region are mounting an epic response: a “wall” of restored forests and lands stretching more than 8,000 kilometers across the continent. 

The Great Green Wall is a spectacular initiative designed to help people and nature cope with the growing impact of the climate emergency and the degradation of vital ecosystems, and to keep the Sahara Desert from spreading deeper into one of the world’s poorest regions. 

Read more about the Great Green Wall 

The Republic of Korea will host World Environment Day 2025, with the focus on ending plastic pollution.  

The Korean city of Busan will host the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee on plastic pollution in November 2024. The aim of the process is to finalize a global plastics treaty which ends plastic pollution.  

The world produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, filling the ocean and, often, working their way into the human food chain.

As Riziki Bwanake walks along the Tana River Delta, the dry, dusty earth crunches beneath her feet. This part of eastern Kenya was once lush, home to a rich expanse of mangroves and an abundance of fish. 

But the sheer weight of the human demands on this fragile ecosystem, exacerbated by a devastating drought, has left the delta parched. Bwanake, and others in her community are trying to change that, working with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant 100,000 native trees. Their goal: stem the tide of desertification and turn the land from brown into green. 

These challenges aren’t limited to the Tana River Delta. Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia are currently grappling with some of the worst heat and driest weather since satellite record keeping began. 

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Yacouba Sawadogo, 76, has been a farmer for much of his life, tending a plot of land in a semi-arid stretch of central Burkina Faso. But in the 1980s, that way of life almost came to an end.

Severe droughts triggered soil erosion and land degradation, crippling farms across Burkina Faso and much of Western Africa.

“People were leaving, and the animals and trees were dying,” Sawadogo recalled. “We had to look at a new way to farm.”

Amid the crisis, Sawadogo developed a modified version of a traditional farming practice known as Zai that helps crops survive on minimal rainfall.

The technique has revolutionized farming in much of Africa. Sawadogo – a UNEP Champion of the Earth – is part of a global effort to slow the process of desertification taking place everywhere from Chile to China. 

Read the full article.

It was something many in the village of Wada’a, Sudan, had never seen before. A couple of months earlier, workers had begun channeling water from a small dam-like structure into the parched farmland surrounding the community of 17,000, in the state of North Darfur.  

In another place or at another time, this simple act of irrigation might not have seemed remarkable. But the dam’s completion came as Sudan tipped into armed conflict, with fighting erupting across several parts of the country, including El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. The dam project – led by UNEP – has buoyed Wada’a residents, who have long struggled with drought. 

Read the story.  

The splash was so loud that environmental advocate Lewis Pugh thought someone had jumped off the bridge he was swimming under. But then Pugh, in the midst of a month-long swim down the United States’ Hudson River, saw what had joined him in the water: a bald eagle.

“This majestic creature spread its wings and lifted up right in front of us. I will never forget the sight of it,” says Pugh.

The British-South African, who is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Patron of the Ocean, has completed a 507 kilometers swim down the Hudson. 

The journey cast a spotlight on the river’s resurgence – and the need to protect the world’s waterways from pollution, climate change and a range of other threats. 

Read the full story. 

Once considered a bread basket of the Roman Empire, the Beqaa Valley is the most fertile region in Lebanon. But overgrazing, soil erosion and deforestation have stripped the once-lush mountains of natural tree cover, leaving shepherds and their animals at the mercy of the scorching Middle Eastern sun. 

“It is very hot in summer and there is no shade where I can sit, or my flock can graze,” said Hussein Janbayn, a local shepherd who has around 400 goats. 

In 2021, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative, worked with local municipalities to launch an innovative pilot project called “Shade for Life” in the villages of Mdoukha and Khirbet Rouha in Rashaya district in the Beqaa Valley. 

Read the full story. 

Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972, World Environment Day has grown to become one of the largest global platforms for environmental action, with tens of millions of people participating in the day every year.  

Each year World Environment Day focuses on a different theme and is hosted by a different country. Recent years have seen the focus on everything from plastic pollution and the illegal wildlife trade to air pollution and food waste. 

Taking place on June 5, this year’s focus is on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience and is hosted by Saudi Arabia. 

Read more about World Environment Day 2024.