Keynote Speakers

The final plenary of SER2025 explored coastal and marine restoration, from mangroves to coral reefs. The degradation of terrestrial ecosystems and inland waters is often very visible. Deforestation, degraded agricultural lands, drained wetlands, and eroded streams are evident even to the untrained eye. Many marine ecosystems, however, are by definition under the water, visible only …

The Day 3 plenary sessions focused on terrestrial ecosystems, highlighting the social and environmental complexity of restoring degraded and damaged lands. Lessons from one of the world’s most significant mammal recoveries  The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, a dynamic partnership between government and civil society, is a vast restoration project of over 180 million acres of …

The high-level panel on Day 2 of SER2025 brought together leaders from global intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, and Indigenous communities, alongside experts from the government and corporate sectors, to discuss the enabling conditions needed to accelerate restoration in the second half of the UN Decade.  Anita Diedrichsen, Global Leader on Forest Landscape Restoration at WWF and …

Healthy freshwater systems support healthy life on land The opening plenary at SER2025 focused on our essential source of life – freshwater. Christine Colvin, Policy Lead for Freshwater at WWF International, painted a picture of the challenges faced by our inland waters. Of all our ecosystems and biomes, freshwater wildlife populations have experienced the greatest …