TriplePundit turns 20 this year, in the middle of what the United Nations dubbed the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. Ironically, researchers just learned the average person uses fewer nature-related words than ever before, a clear sign that the disconnect between humans and nature is growing. Where we once meandered through meadows cut by babbling brooks and listened to leaves crunch under our feet in the forest, we now commute on concrete amongst cars and buildings.

For better or worse, we are inspired by the world around us. Shifts in that environment change the way we write and speak about nature, or whether we mention it at all. Organizations like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services cite diminishing interactions with nature as a causal factor in biodiversity loss and climate change. How can we steward an environment we’re so disconnected from?

We can start by talking about it (and maybe taking a stroll wherever we can find nature). To mark TriplePundit’s 20th year as a newsroom, we’re reflecting on how the global sustainability space has evolved and changed, and I tracked more progress in ecosystem restoration than I expected. As our disconnect with nature grows, we yearn for it back.

Still, a long, asphalt road lies ahead. Researchers expect the gap between humans and nature to continue growing until at least 2050, when the groundwork we’re laying now might finally bring it closer to our daily lives. That future depends on continuing to protect and restore ecosystems, an objective that frequently finds itself in the crosshairs of policy and development.

Even so, people everywhere are finding ways to reforge that connection for themselves and those around them — and many have successfully brought ecosystems back from collapse with conservation projects. Their work could fill the future with beautiful descriptions of nature once again. Here’s how solutions journalists covered some of them.

Read the full article about ecosystem restoration by Taylor Haelterman at TriplePundit.