John D. Liu at Green Minds Gather 2025 - Copenhagen

6 Jun 2025 · 2 min

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1:47

In this segment of his Green Minds Gather 2025 talk, John D. Liu celebrates Denmark’s pledge to lead ecosystem restoration in Europe and illustrates the transformative power of the Lys Plateau project. He describes the plateau as once the most eroded place on Earth, inhabited only by the desperately poor. The turning point was a program that paid local residents to learn ecological restoration techniques. Over fourteen years, the landscape rebounded: streams now flow, soils regained organic matter and fertility, moisture infiltration and retention increased, a canopy re‑established, and the lower hydrological cycle was re‑activated. Liu stresses that restoration is not a theoretical concept but a physical process that must be actively implemented, urging a deeper understanding and widespread action.

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Really, it is humbling to have the opportunity to come here and hear that Denmark wants to take on the role of leadership in ecosystem restoration in Europe. That's exciting news. This is the Lys Plateau. When I first went out there, And this was known as the most eroded place on Earth. It was unthinkable to me at the time that you could restore this place. Only the desperately poor stayed there. Everything that they were doing had to change. And then they, they began to contemplate, well, how would we do that? And what they ended up doing was paying the people to learn how to do ecological restoration. This is what it started with. And then 14 years later, basically it makes the streams flow. It makes the soil grow in the amount of organic material and fertility. It infiltrates and retains moisture. It creates a canopy. It circulates moisture in the lower hydrological cycle. And if we don't understand this and we don't know how this works, we, we badly need to, to get this under control. And the fact is that this is not a theoretical thing. This is a physical thing. And so the only way that this works is if you do it.