Biodiversity

“We all depend on healthy ecosystems for food and energy, water and biodiversity. Their continued degradation contributes to climate change and enhances the risk of severe ecological disasters. Widespread loss of function in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems will be catastrophic for our planet and a huge setback on progress made towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It’s time to rebuild what has been lost.”

(United Nations, Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030) 

Ashoka Fellows are already making waves in the environmental field - with the right support we can turn the tide. Weaving for a Thriving Planet is a new Ashoka Program co-created with Ashoka Fellows and let by Ashoka Netherlands. The aim is to accelerate and scale Ashoka Fellows' systemic solutions to conserve and restore biodiversity by leveraging of their inovations and systemic weave them together to increase their collective impact. 

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“Weaving for a Thriving Planet” is an initiative propelled by Ashoka and co-created with Ashoka Fellows and partners. Together we form a group of 18 leading social innovators who aim to accelerate and scale systemic, community-based solutions to conserve and restore biodiversity. We will do this by leveraging the potential of our innovations and weave them together to increase our collective impact. 

The success of our solutions is based on a shared vision that everyone is a changemaker; that all people and communities can be a driving force for good if they are inspired, motivated and provided with the right tools to be part of the change. 

The first group of co-creators have up until today formed 222 hub/groups across Europe, engaged 1.8 million households, 46.700 school kids, and mobilised 4.6 million individuals in some capacity. And this is only the start of a multiple year effort to join our forces with the aim to: 

• Share learnings and best practices in community-based models; 

• Develop collective actions such as campaigning, lobby and advocacy; 

• Replicate our innovative solutions at scale. 

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The expected outcomes are: 

• Key decision makers and policy makers are inspired and convinced about the need for community-based transformation to preserve biodiversity; 

• Systems are in place to facilitate community-based strategies; 

• More people in communities are enabled to regenerate natural resources, restore ecosystems and preserve and increase biodiversity. 

We started in February 2021 with 18 social innovators from Europe, and we hope to invite other change leaders from different continents from 2022 onwards. 

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Weaving for a Thriving Planet Booklet

In February, Ashoka Netherlands together with Ashoka Fellows and partners launched their new initiative Weaving for a Thriving Planet. They are a group of social innovators who aim to accelerate and scale their systemic systems to conserve and restore biodiversity. This is done by leveraging the potential of their innovations and weaving them together to increase the collective impact. The initiative is built on a view that by combining the existing and proven solutions, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Weaving for a Thriving Planet aims to regenerate the natural systems that support all life on this planet.