Remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Mongolia’s “One Million Tree” Planting Campaign.

Before starting, I want to ask our distinguished women and men peacekeepers that are here to please to convey to your colleagues my enormous admiration and my enormous gratitude for their courage, for their determination, for the exemplary way in which in the most dangerous places in the world, they have been protecting civilians, protecting victims in a way that really deserves the admiration of the whole world.  

And to the distinguished representatives of the youth that are here, the President just told me that you have a vibrant youth movement in the protection of nature and in fighting climate change. 

My generation was very stupid. My generation declared war on nature - with climate change with the loss of biodiversity, with pollution. Nature is striking back. Striking back with storms, with desertification with floods, with disasters that are making life very difficult for many people around the world and causing many victims.  

Your generation has an important task to make peace with nature. And what we are going to do today, must be a gesture of that new attitude to make peace with nature.  

[...] Read the complete statement here.  

This story was originally published by the United Nations.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, led by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners, covers terrestrial as well as coastal and marine ecosystems. As global call to action, it will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration. Find out how you can contribute to the UN Decade. Follow #GenerationRestoration.