THE Grapevine

RESEEDING DRYLANDS IS VITAL FOR SURVIVAL The United Nations has declared a Decade on Ecosystem Restoration as an urgent rallying cry to heal the planet. It’s a monumental undertaking aimed at preventing further damage and halting or reversing the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. Under this umbrella the Global Arid Zone project aims to restore degraded drylands by reseeding them to help mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these environments. Scientists leading the project recently examined the restoration seeding outcomes from 174 sites across six continents in order to learn lessons for ambitious future targets. Flinders University’s Dr Martin Breed is one of three Australian researchers who helped co-ordinate data collection for the live database. “Much of Australia is drylands…