Apparently shaken by the hellish climate change, organised labour is currently taking a bold step to promote nature conservation in the work place. A deal between International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will be giving the green initiative a boost.
ILO and IUCB have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to raise awareness on the interdependence between jobs and nature.
The MoU is intended to formalise the already ongoing collaboration between the two organisations to promote and support, among other things, Green Works, the creation of decent jobs through investments in reforestation, soil and water conservation, environmental rehabilitation and climate change adaptation.
What is Green Works?
The effects of the changing climate are felt around the world, posing an increasing threat to the prosperity of people, economies and ecosystems.
Climate change severely and disproportionately affects the poor in developing countries – not only because they are invariably more exposed and more vulnerable to climate-related impacts but also because they have less access to resources, and social and financial sup- port, including social protection, for their survival.
Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) is therefore, assisting and guiding the identification, design and implementation of interventions in support of climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Climate change adaptation involves reducing risks and vulnerability, while seeking opportunities and building the capacity of affected communities and people to cope with the effects.
Thus, Green Works refer to the employment intensive development, restoration and maintenance of public infrastructure, community assets, natural areas and landscapes to contribute to environmental goals such as adaptation to climate change and natural disasters, environmental rehabilitation, ecosystem restoration and nature conservation.
Common examples of green works are soil and water conservation, afforestation and reforestation, irrigation, and flood protection.
There is an EIIP technical brief that demonstrates how green works have a great potential to tackle environmental challenges at the same time as to create employment through their labour-intensive approach.
The MoU also underlines the importance of “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS), which use nature to address key societal challenges like increasing agricultural productivity and incomes through the use of more sustainable agro-forestry practices or the promotion of urban greening to reduce temperatures in cities.
As many as 1.2 billion jobs rely directly on ecosystems and the services they provide – be it through the provision of food and water, the regulation of the climate system or the control of disease vectors. At the same time, increasingly important activities such as ecosystem restoration have the potential to create many jobs.
ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, says “if we are serious about creating decent work for all in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, we must not forget that today’s jobs and tomorrow’s depend on preserving ecosystems and are sensitive to the loss of biodiversity. Simply put, without a healthy planet, there can be no productive economies nor decent work.”
For IUCN Director-General, Bruno Oberle, “in this post-COVID recovery journey, we must avoid investments that are harmful to nature, which means that we must avoid “business as usual”. Moreover, recovery investments should support nature conservation and restoration, while also addressing economic recovery and broader societal challenges.”
The world of work has a critical role to play in shaping human-centred, nature-based solutions that can generate jobs, income, reduce poverty, and restore biodiversity and ecosystems. Bot the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work and the Global Call to Action for a human-centred recovery from the COVID-19 crisis underline the environment as one of the key drivers of transformative change in the world of work.
ILO, the UN agency for the world of work, in partnership with IUCN, the global authority on the status of the natural world and measures to safeguard it, are ideally positioned to lead and support silo-breaking, cross-sectoral and innovative solutions for people and nature.
The strengths of both organizations set forth a path towards a just transition to a future of work that contributes to sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions.
