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How To Save Our Forests and Rewild Our Planet

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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    Most of us have
    a special memory with trees.
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    A childhood climb
    or their shade on a sunny day.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    But we've taken trees for granted
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    and cleared nearly half
    of our planet's forests.
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    Luckily, forests have
    an extraordinary ability to recover.
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    ♪ (music) ♪
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    Across much of the globe
    lies a forest in the making.
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    ♪ (music) ♪
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    Just the slightest opportunity,
    and trees reveal their magical ability
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    ♪ (music) ♪
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    to restore themselves and rewild the land,
    seemingly from nothing.
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    ♪ (music) ♪
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    This resilience stems from
    a need to survive and recover
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    from the harshest conditions
    nature can throw at them.
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    (sound of fire crackling)
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    But forests have struggled to bounce back,
    from us.
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    (sound of old movie projector)
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    Nothing takes down trees
    faster than humans.
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    We're devastatingly efficient.
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    In just 25 years,
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    we've lost over one million
    square kilometers of forest.
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    We're still clearing
    over ten billion trees a year.
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    Many of our ancient forests are gone,
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    where the variety of life
    was most abundant and diverse.
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    We've also lost the forests' guardians,
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    the predators,
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    who helped ensure that plant eaters
    can't prevent the forests' return.
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    But we need trees.
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    (sound of thunder)
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    Forests absorb carbon from our atmosphere,
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    and store it in their trunks,
    roots and the soil.
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    They remove almost 15 billion tonnes
    of carbon dioxide each year.
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    As we clear and burn forests,
    we release dangerous amounts of carbon
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    back into the atmosphere,
    increasing the rate of climate change.
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    We need to reverse this
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    and create a world
    of expanding forests once more.
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    Luckily for us, the solution to how we
    restore the planet's forests is simple.
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    We just need to give trees the opportunity
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    to draw on their natural resilience.
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    We can start by protecting those
    last remaining ancient forests.
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    These precious places,
    undamaged by humans,
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    still host their entire natural mix
    of species, and trees, young and old.
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    From here, plants and animals
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    can radiate out to colonize new ground.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    These ancient places
    need to remain standing forever.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    Most of the other forests on our planet
    have experienced some human impact.
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    ♪ (soft music) ♪
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    Yet they can still be healthy and wild.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    We can keep them this way
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    whilst carefully extracting
    wood and other products
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    and valuing them as they are.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    By managing them well,
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    we can work with their natural resilience
    to keep them standing.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    It's a fact that our
    growing global population
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    will need to use more wood.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    And that could be a good thing.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    Wood is an extraordinary
    renewable resource,
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    and taking it from well-managed sources
    benefits forests and the planet.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    But on their own, natural forests
    can't provide all the wood that we need.
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    So we also have to farm trees,
    just like we do other crops,
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    and create
    a new generation of plantations.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    Plantations thus allow wildlife
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    to pass through natural forest corridors
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    that benefit local communities
    and economies,
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    and that are planted
    on existing cleared land,
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    so they don't replace natural forests.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    Around the world, there are an estimated
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    two billion hectares of degraded land
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    where forests could be restored.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    That's twice the size of Europe.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    As we become more efficient farmers
    and adopt healthier diets,
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    we'll free up land for plantations.
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    And for our forests to return. To rewild.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    Better farming.
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    More forests.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    We can help nature
    to accelerate this global restoration.
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    In many countries, people are
    planting millions of trees by hand.
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    There are projects that deploy
    extraordinary technology
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    to speed up the natural process.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    Even shooting seeds
    to rewild those hard-to-reach places.
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    ♪ (upbeat music) ♪
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    If we do all these things,
    just imagine our planet in the future.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    We'll have protected
    our amazing ancient forests.
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    We'll be able to harvest
    all the timbre we'll ever need.
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    We'll have stabilized our climate.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    And we'll have more natural forests
    than any of us have ever known.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    The best thing of all,
    we can build a future
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    where our cities
    will be filled with trees,
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    giving us shade and cleaning the air.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    This will make us all
    healthier and happier.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    Because just seeing trees from a window
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    or walking past trees on our way to work
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    restores our minds and bodies.
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    ♪ (poignant music) ♪
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    That's the magic of trees.
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    And when you're in a forest,
    you can feel it.
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    (sound of birds chirping)
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    Go on.
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    Breathe.
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    (sound of birds chirping)
Title:
How To Save Our Forests and Rewild Our Planet
Description:

After centuries of clearing forest find out from Sir David Attenborough why we could soon have more forest than any of us have ever known.

What is Our Planet?

A Netflix original documentary series and groundbreaking collaboration between WWF, Netflix and Silverback Films, Our Planet showcases the world's natural wonders, iconic species and wildlife spectacles that still remain. We're all a part of this amazing planet, but we're changing it like never before. Discover the story of the one place we all call home.

Watch Our Planet on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/ourplanet

Explore: www.ourplanet.com

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5MDIy3yhWDrx0MyDo4QmYg?sub_confirmation=1
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Amplifying Voices
Project:
Rewillding
Duration:
07:46

English subtitles

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