COVID-19 Creates Opportunity for Transformation toward Harmony with Nature at the United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2020

Shumei International recently attended the first-ever United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which took place from 7 to 16 July. Due to the global pandemic and social distancing, all meetings and side events were hosted online. This new format was a consistent reminder of the global impact of coronavirus and the inequalities and setbacks being faced by countries around the world.

This year, 2020 was supposed to mark the beginning of the “Decade of Action” as the UN global community takes ambitious measures to reach the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. While progress has been made on some of the SDGs such as access to clean water and sanitation, social and economic toll of the pandemic has resulted in increases in hunger and poverty.

Many participants at the UN HLPF underscored the importance of achieving the 2030 global goals, and how the UN SDGs are not mutually exclusive from one another. Several experts stressed how the COVID – 19 pandemic exposed so many of the world’s vulnerabilities and were a consequence of human beings’ abusive relationship with the Mother Earth.  Multiple dignitaries discussed how the COVID – 19 pandemic is inextricably linked to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, and how addressing environmental issues is a key step preventing future pandemics. Various delegates stressed the point that if environmental issues are not addressed, the effects of ecological degradation could be many times more detrimental for humanity than the COVID crisis. An overall consensus from the deliberations was that profound change can occur at a local level, and that local communities hold the power to take environmental action.

That is why an overarching thing amongst the United Nations community is “building back better” in the wake of COVID – 19 as opposed to trying to revert to things as they were before.

Shumei international is and has been committed to working with local communities to a achieve these goals by creating Natural Agriculture farm communities across the globe which empower communities to develop a non-exploitative relationship with the Mother Earth. By working to restore the land and the world’s food systems that is based around local principals, the global development goals can be achieved naturally in a way that is favourable for everyone, including the Earth.