“We cannot turn back time, but we can grow forests, revive water sources, and bring back soils. We are the generation that can make peace with land,” World Environment Day 2024.
To mark World Environment Day 2024, the UN Environment Programme has made an urgent call to action to Generation Restoration to find common ground worldwide around three priorities:
- Revive lands
- End desertification
- Secure water
We are committed to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss – two of the biggest challenges of our time – because we know that supporting a healthy environment is critical to the health of people, society, and the planet. Natural resources, and the benefits that humans receive from nature, are also essential to produce our medicines and operate our sites.
Through water stewardship and reforestation we're taking action to help restore landscapes and enhance ecological resilience. We are also collaborating with our peers in the pharmaceutical sector to develop a new Roadmap to Nature Positive for the pharmaceutical sector, to accelerate the business contribution towards the societal goal of nature positive.
AZ Forest – our global reforestation programme
Through AZ Forest, we are working in partnership with experts focused on landscape restoration and local communities, to plant and maintain 200 million trees across six continents by 2030. AZ Forest focuses on natural forest restoration, restoration of regraded agricultural land, and agroforestry. Projects are designed to maximise the co-benefits of reforestation, including: supporting sustainable livelihoods, building local climate resilience, protecting and restoring biodiversity and reducing the risk of natural disasters, such as floods and landslides.
AZ Forest India – Regeneration Meghalaya
In India, we will plant and maintain an estimated 64 million trees, in collaboration with Earthbanc, Earthtree, Worldview Impact (India) and Hill Farmers Shiitake Mushroom Co-op Society. The regenerative horticulture and agriculture project will plant many of the indigenous tree and plant species suitable for farmers to sustainably produce foods, fibre, and essential oils.
The project is the largest in a network of Circular Bioeconomy Alliance's (CBA) “Living Labs for Nature, People and Planet”, a series of initiatives that follow a framework for sustainable, resilient and locally appropriate landscape regeneration, co-developed by the European Forest Institute (EFI), the CBA and AstraZeneca. Innovative AI technology and will enable monitoring of AZ Forest India tree planting targets, and in line with the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Global Mechanism, biophysical indicators such as biomass, soil organic carbon, land productivity and land cover are also being monitored.
This is a wonderful example of private sector leadership and joined up thinking in land stewardship. Earthbanc and its partners are fighting climate change and delivering for people and the land at the same time. The project’s strong focus on developing sustainable value chains that ensure farmers’ livelihoods will also mean land degradation stops as land cover, productivity and soil organic carbon all increase. Everyone benefits!
AZ Forest Ghana – landscape restoration in Atebubu and Wiase
In Africa, in central Ghana, we are working together with the CBA, New Generation Plantation Technical Assistance (NGPTA) and other partners, to plant and ensure the survival of 4.7 million trees. By the end of 2023, this “Living Lab”, had engaged 23 communities and planted over 3.8 million trees. Our science-led approach includes analysing environmental DNA (eDNA) in water samples to track the impact of natural forest restoration on freshwater biodiversity in the region.
AZ Forest Ghana will contribute to this year’s Green Ghana Day goal to plant 10 million trees across the country.
More information on our AZ Forest projects in Kenya and on 2023 programme expansion.
Water stewardship
Protecting water sources is critical to a healthy environment. Through responsible management of water resources and enhancing water quality, we are safeguarding ecosystems and preserving water for current and future generations. For example, in partnership with the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI), employees from AZ India Chennai helped to support biodiversity and water, by:
- Restoring two ponds and four lakes covering 180 acres of land, increasing freshwater storage by 2000m3 and water holding capacity by 100%. This helps to replenish the groundwater table within a 10km radius, enhances flood resilience and controls soil erosion.
- Setting up two “sponge parks” to collect, filter, and store runoff during heavy rainfall, reducing flood risk, enhancing drought resilience and water quality.
- Installing two rainwater harvesting units in schools, promoting rainwater conservation and reducing dependence on municipal water supplies.
As members of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) we support the global movement to advance good water stewardship practices and are actively participating in Phase 1 of the AWS Impact Accelerator programme, at our sites in Chennai and Bangalore to address shared water challenges. Through comprehensive catchment assessments and gap analysis reports we're laying the groundwork to meet the rigorous requirements of the AWS Standard.
Our Chennai and Bangalore sites have also embarked on local forestation efforts, planting over 32,000 indigenous saplings. This activity, which has increased green cover by four acres, supporting reduced air and noise pollution, creating carbon sinks and mitigating urban heat island effects, is in addition to reforestation activities under our global AZ Forest programme.
Generation Restoration
This World Environment Day, we also want to spotlight our 2024 Lead2030 Challenge grant winners, to young leaders driving landscape restoration and water stewardship:
- Through his leadership of the EARTHDAY.org Canopy Project, Ajay Mittal, co-founder of Kolkata Clean Air and a climate advocate and changemaker from India, has enabled the planting of two million mangroves in the fragile Sundarbans ecosystem, helping restore 160 hectares of degraded mangrove sites.
- Dr. Eliezer Lappots-Abreu, President and Executive Director of Health Horizons International (HHI), has directed high-impact community development projects including improving access to clean water through a water filter project, as well as tree planting in the Dominican Republic.
The Lead2030 Challenge is the world’s largest prize fund for young leaders making an impact towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both of our Lead2030 Challenge grant winners will each receive grants of US $50,000 for their health equity projects, a fully-funded Scholarship to the One Young World Summit in Montréal and a year of mentorship from our leaders to support their development.
