The Earth is in an environmental tailspin that threatens the future of billions of people, finds a major new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
To rescue itself, the seventh edition of the Global Environment Outlook says humanity needs to make dramatic changes to the way it runs its economies, uses raw materials, manages waste, generates power, produces and consumes food, and treats the environment.
Sound like an impossible task? Not necessarily, say the reports authors, a collection of nearly 300 multidisciplinary scientists. Several communities around the world have already started to remake crucial systems, with the early returns showing it is possible to protect the environment and create new opportunities.
Too often people look at it as a binary choice: the environment or the economy, says Maarten Kappelle, Chief of Service in UNEPs Office of Science. But you can build an economy that benefits people and planet. In fact, thats happening everywhere from Burkina Faso to India right now.
Here are four examples of this kind of transformation in action.
Marrying conservation and growth
For years, many of Indias Advasi Indigenous Peoples who live in and around a world-famous Periyar Tiger Reserve had struggled with unemployment and poverty. But in the late 1990s, the government and donor groups launched a wide-ranging project that twinned development and conservation. Many of the 200,000 Advasi community members were taught how to become wildlife guides and forest rangers. That helped both protect the reserves endangered big cats and kick off an eco-tourism boom in the region that provided jobs and stability for many local families.
Capitalizing on electronic waste
Through much of the 1990s, China was a dumping ground for electronic waste, a lot of it illegally imported from abroad. Everything from old computers to refrigerators flooded landfills and informal dumpsites, leaching toxic chemicals into the countrys soils and water. 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 per cent 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 per cent of its national maritime waters, up from less than 1 per cent in 2015.
Holding back the Sahara
For decades, farming in Africas 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.
About the Global Environment Outlook (GEO)
Launched in 1997, the GEO series offers an unparalleled look at the state of the natural world and provides policymakers with a blueprint for creating a healthier planet. Its seventh edition, titled A Future We Choose, was released in December 2025 along with an interactive summary. For a look at what the world will look like if humanity does not embrace sustainability, check out the first of our stories on GEO-7. For the reports recipe for a healthier planet, read the second piece in our series.
