Conclusion
But over the last two decades, China has cultivated the creation of 100-plus licensed e-waste recycling companies. Today, these firms process an array of electronic components, including circuit boards, toner cartridges and liquid crystal displays.
This prevents toxic chemicals like mercury from escaping into the environment while creating jobs for thousands. As of 2020, up to 50 percent of electronic waste in China was recycled.
Turning debt into nature
Mired in debt in mid 2010s, the small island nation of Seychelles was looking for relief from its creditors. So, it made a unique deal to both bolster its economy and preserve its biodiversity-rich coastal waters. The American conservation group, the Nature Conservancy agreed to buy US$13 million of Seychelles debt in exchange for a promise that the country create a series of marine protected areas off its coast.
This so-called debt-for-nature swap has seen Seychelles safeguard 30 percent of its national maritime waters, up from less than 1 per cent in 2015.
Holding back the Sahara
For decades, farming in Africa’s Sahel region, a semi-arid strip of land bordering the southern part of the Sahara Desert, has been an uphill battle. Droughts and erratic rains–linked to climate change–have led to crop losses and, in the not-so-distant past, famine. But in recent years farmers from Burkina Faso to Kenya have embraced a traditional farming technique, known as zai, that is helping to change that.
In a method that is easy on the environment, farmers dig pits into degraded soils and fill them with compost or natural fertilizer. The pits concentrate what little water there is, creating fertile ground for seeds. Some farmers even use termites to breakup hard, dry ground. The technique has been said to boost yields by up to 500 per cent.
However, these successes are still isolated and nowhere near enough. Much greater effort is required to deliver solutions that work across all environmental crises at scale.
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