We speak to Tim Christophersen author of ‘Generation Restoration’ and is an advocate for ecosystem restoration
Tim Christophersen interviewed
Who are we talking to, and is it a logical journey to what you do now?
I grew up in a small village surrounded by forests, and there was not much else to do than spend time in nature. My grandfather was a forest ranger who took me out for long walks. I went mushroom hunting, fishing, and camping from an early age. That’s probably why I spent my entire career, now over 25 years, trying to save nature. During that time, I have addressed the issue from different angles: first working for a research institute in Denmark, then for the European Commission, and then for an NGO, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. After that, I spent 15 years working for the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, including setting up the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
In 2022, I joined Salesforce as VP of Climate Action to provide leadership on sustainability within the private sector. Salesforce has a unique role within the corporate sector, as a role model and also as a trusted advisor to most of the world’s largest companies. In that role, my team and I have supported and collaborated with hundreds of companies on their climate and nature journey, building the political will to take action for a more abundant future.
Tell us about your new book, Generation Restoration. What is the concept you are outlining?
In the book, I track the rapid decline of biodiversity – the life support system of Planet Earth – over the past centuries, and even more rapidly over the past decades. We have lost nature to such a degree now that we live in a ‘ten percent world’ compared to our former natural wealth. We are in an existential relationship crisis with nature. ‘Generation Restoration’ explores how we can instead turn the Planet into a haven of diversity and natural abundance for everyone. It is possible, within one generation, if we all work better together. And if we learn some basic ecological literacy. We are basically flying blind when it comes to understanding the natural world.
The book calls for a century of ecology, which will reconcile humans and nature through a better understanding, including the recognition that humans are part of nature. Making peace with nature in the 21st century is a logical progression from the 20th century, which focused on chemistry and physics and has brought us amazing progress, but also enormous ecological challenges. We now have to solve them through a deeper ‘knowledge of our common home’, which is what the world ecology means.
How probable is it that we can achieve this?
It is not only feasible – it is already happening. In the book, I show examples from around the world where local communities, governments, and companies are starting to restore nature at an unprecedented scale. Accion Andina, for instance, is a movement to restore the watersheds of the high Andes across most of South America. Most of the continent relies on mountain forest ecosystems for drinking water and irrigation, and restoring the Andean forests from less than ten percent of their former range to their original abundance will ensure water security. It is not only feasible – we basically don’t have any other choice but to make peace with nature and restore ecosystems on a large scale.
Accion Andina only started six years ago, and now covers 400 sites in five countries where over 30,000 volunteers have planted over ten million native trees. If governments would adequately support such country- and continent-wide efforts, we could easily achieve this level of restoration at a global scale. Nature is critical infrastructure for every human society, and we have to start treating ecosystem restoration as a priority, with the needed levels of large-scale planning and investment. We are, in fact, the first generation in history that has all the technology, scientific knowledge, and the finances to restore nature at a planetary scale. We might also be the last generation that has the opportunity. We are ‘Generation Restoration’.
If global ecological literacy is a pre-requisite, how can we increase the chances of this succeeding?
The answer might surprise you, but I expect that AI will trigger enormous advances in ecological science and in related disciplines over the next few years. And not only that – AI can potentially democratize that knowledge and make it available and accessible to much larger parts of the population. We have become used to the fact that debates around complex topics, such as climate change or ecology, are the domain of experts. However, everyone in the world can now see, if they open their eyes, that the climate is changing and that this is causing problems. The solutions are at our fingertips, and many of them are based on traditional ecological knowledge of local communities and the wisdom of indigenous peoples.
Every local farmer and every citizen has a role to play and a contribution to make. AI can help us connect the dots, gain the knowledge, and find our role to make a positive contribution. By having an AI-driven PhD in Ecology in our pockets, accessible anytime, and nearly anywhere, we can build ecological literacy much faster than at any time in history. However, good storytelling will still play an important role, because as humans we are hardwired to learn new things and expand our understanding through stories. This is why I bring some of the nature stories I experienced around the world into the book.
How can people reconnect with nature?
The best way to connect with nature and build a strong relationship is to start with food. Just like in many other good relationships! Your food is your daily dose of nature. Which farms produced it? How do they contribute to restoring nature, or are they rather degrading nature? Where does your water come from? Find out which ecosystems filter and store your drinking water, and how you can better connect with them and protect and restore those ecosystems. Make nature tangible for you. Make your connection with nature count, and build a personal relationship with nature. Nature will answer your queries and your curiosity! We are all part of nature, and that is why we will collectively rise to the challenge to defend and restore nature in this generation. Nature is waiting. It is time to come home.
There have been some positive ecosystem regenerations. Tell us about some of these? Are / will they be scalable elsewhere?
History has many examples of large-scale restoration, including the Great Dust Bowl in the midwestern United States in the 1930s and 1940s, when large degradation and desertification through wrong landuse practices cause a mass migration of over two million people. It was only stopped when the soil was stabilized through the planting of 220 million trees and the implementation of soil conservation techniques. Another example is the restoration of an entire region in China called the Loess Plateau. Once the fruit orchard of the nation, the area had been severely degraded and the soil eroded due to mismanagement in the 1970s and 80s, until a World Bank project in the mid-1990s stopped the erosion and rebuilt the soil, fertility, and diversity of the agricultural ecosystems within just ten years.
The Loess Plateau is now once again supporting the livelihoods of over 50 million people. Compared to other infrastructure investments, ecosystem restoration pays a very high dividend for society at large, up to 30 USD for every 1 USD invested, according to UNEP. Ecosystem restoration is an idea whose time has come. We can do it, and we will. All we need is the right level of imagination, ambition, and political will. I hope my book contributes to that.
What are the upsides of AI in terms of connecting with nature, if any?
Imagine if we saw landscapes around us not as they are, but as they could be if they were fully restored. I don’t mean restored in the sense of going back to some romanticized past and static ecological state. I mean restored in terms of nature and humans living in a mutually beneficial and fully intentional, healthy, and productive relationship. That is within reach if we have basic ecological literacy and the right imagination. Generative AI can help with creating that knowledge and imagination. Take, for example, Ireland’s temperate rainforest. They were once widespread but are now reduced to rare, small fragments—one of Europe’s most dramatic examples of woodland loss, with less than one percent remaining as ancient woodland and only a tiny fraction of that considered true temperate rainforest.
We need intact forests today more than ever, as essential buffers for a stable climate, to store and filter our water, and provide fertile soil. We need more forests and trees in large parts of our landscapes, even within highly productive agricultural landscapes. We have the scientific knowledge and the technological and financial means to restore entire biomes such as the Atlantic Oakwoods to previously unimaginable levels of abundance. An exciting opportunity! But we first need the imagination to get started. We need to understand our role on this planet as stewards of nature. We are Earth’s most powerful ecosystem engineer, and we can use that power for good. Generative AI can help us to see a vision of a restored future, and agentic AI can help structure large-scale ecosystem restoration projects, involving thousands of beneficiaries, investors, and stakeholders. ‘Landscape Relationship Management’ will become an important software service.
What is Climate Action? How do we ensure large tech companies buy in and do more than just greenwashing?
Taking climate action is, in essence just common sense for any business. Climate change already disrupts supply chains, energy security, and in many cases even water and food security. If left unchecked, a destabilizing climate will throw the entire world economy, and each and every business, into a future that is almost impossible to plan for. That is why it is important that we take climate action today, not only by decarbonizing our energy supply and our entire value chain, but also by investing in climate resilience. We see that happening across the board, even in countries where climate action is for the time being not a government priority. Businesses cannot afford to see their supply chains crumble.
For tech companies like Salesforce, one of the key climate investment areas is in the energy and water security for data centers. Our focus is on power sector decarbonization, and on the restoration and resilience of forest watersheds that provide our offices and our datacenter locations with sufficient water. We have a goal of conservation and restoring 100 million trees by 2030, as part of the trillion trees initiative 1t.org, and we are on track to achieve that, in addition to our Science-based Target of reducing our emissions by 68 percent by 2030 and by over 90 percent by 2040.
You have been able to work remotely, can, will we see more of this? What are the pros and cons?
Being a fully remote employee works well for me because my team is spread across many time zones, and I need flexible working hours. And Salesforce is great at making all the tools and technologies for remote working available. However, for most of our teams in product, engineering, sales, or marketing, strong team cohesion and synergies can emerge from being in the same space, and that is necessary for a strong team and company culture. That is why Salesforce, like many companies, has implemented a return-to-office policy. So, for the time being, we are seeing less of remote work. I think that might change with the advent of AI where location becomes once again less important.
What can people do to help with a global planet restoration?
The main change is, first and foremost, a change in how we see the world. As agricultural pioneer Don Campbell once put it, “‘If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things.” We are now in a crisis where making small changes is no longer enough, so we have to change the way we see nature and our role in it. So the practical step for everyone is simply to learn more about nature, to be curious, and to spend time in nature. To listen and observe, until we understand that we are part of nature, and we live from nature everywhere, all the time. Once everyone builds a deeper relationship with nature, changes in our actions will come naturally, like eating a more plant-rich, local, and seasonal diet and learning more about ecology.
Nature’s rights will be recognized more formally in our laws, instead of seeing all other species as a commodity. And we will more openly acknowledge that other species are closely related to us, and we to them. These changes in our behaviour will come on gradually, once we have made the fundamental shift of how we see the role of ourselves on Planet Earth: we are the guardians and gardeners of creation. We are Earth’s most powerful ecosystem engineer. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 marks the beginning of this necessary mindshift. It is an idea whose time has come. As Jane Goodall writes in her foreword, “Let us enter into a new era of moral and spiritual evolution”.
Anything else we should have asked?
As a tech company, Salesforce can of course also bring our ‘superpower’ of our technology into the equation for a nature positive world. Through a programme called the Agents for Impact Accelerator, we have helped NGOs like the Forest Stewardship Council, Rare, and the Ocean and Risk Resilience Action Alliance to tap into the power of AI to improve and scale their programs. I hope we will see more of the essential capacity building for the nature movement, as we need to ensure this powerful new technology is a force for good.
How can people learn more about you and your work?
The best way is to follow me on LinkedIn, and of course, to read my book. It will be available on all major online platforms and in bookstores by mid-October. I also frequently speak at events and conferences. More importantly than to connect with me, however, is for people to connect to ecosystem restoration efforts in their communities and in their countries and get involved. Ecosystem restoration is for everyone! The online platform Restor.eco lists over 250,000 projects around the world, with new ones added daily. ‘Generation Restoration’ is on the move. Join us!
More about Tim
Tim Christophersen is a leading global voice on ecosystem restoration, with over 25 years of experience in climate and biodiversity advocacy. He is the author of ‘Generation Restoration’, a roadmap for restoring nature at planetary scale. His career includes pivotal roles at the International Union for Conservation of Nature and 15 years as a diplomat with the United Nations Environment Programme. From the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, Tim has been at the forefront of global environmental action.
In May 2022, he joined the private sector as Vice President of Climate Action at Salesforce, where he drives sustainability initiatives with major corporations and public institutions. Tim also explores regenerative practices on his family farm in Denmark, continuing his personal mission to restore planetary abundance and beauty.
More information: timchristophersen.com
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