One of Europe’s most polluted cities earns a UN Environment title

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🗞️ Driving the news: Milan is emerging as a model for urban nature restoration after its Forestami initiative was named a UN World Restoration Flagship at COP17 in Armenia on 29 October
• Launched in 2019, the project has planted nearly 640,000 trees and shrubs, with plans to plant another three million over the next four years
• It has also helped restore degraded urban spaces, including former industrial sites and parking areas.

🔭 The context: Milan’s location in the Po Basin, combined with intensive agriculture and industrial emissions, contributes to its severe air pollution
• Forestami aims to expand urban greenery to filter fine particles, cool neighbourhoods and improve residents’ wellbeing
• It was the only European initiative among five projects recognised by the UN for large-scale ecosystem restoration

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Urban trees and restored green spaces can help improve air quality, reduce heat and strengthen climate resilience
• Globally, restoring ecosystems also supports biodiversity, food and water security, and carbon storage, but the UN warns that restoration efforts need to accelerate and receive substantially more funding.

⏭️ What’s next: Forestami plans to continue expanding tree cover and involving local communities and schoolchildren
• Meanwhile, a new UN assessment reports that 252 million hectares across 149 countries are undergoing restoration, but annual restoration finance must more than quadruple to meet global ambitions
• Governments are being urged to address the causes of ecosystem degradation and ensure restoration efforts endure

💬 One quote: “Yet, at the halfway point of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, we are still not restoring nature at the scale or speed required,” - Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme.

📈 One stat: 252 million hectares: the area across 149 countries currently undergoing ecosystem restoration, according to the UN assessment

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