Dear friends,

Traditionally, the start of a new year stimulates us to re-fresh our ambitions and to take on new challenges. However, with a global pandemic that continues to rage, it might feel that a big cloud hangs over any new plans for 2022.

With this issue of GO!, we aim to avoid that sentiment. Instead of focusing on clouds, we will accentuate the positive: a bit of optimism in times of crises.

The good news is that we could have filled three issues of GO! with optimistic stories from among the DOB Ecology partners. While all of you face a multitude of crises – on biodiversity, on climate change, on equality, on health – positive energy and solid progress still dominate.

Space here is limited, so we could only zoom in on a few stories. We visit the amazing Andean plateau, where the Latin America office of Wetlands International is doing urgent and difficult work on the restoration of freshwater wetlands.

We also travel to the Tristao Islands off the coast of West Africa, where our friends from PRCM and partners are changing the future of the Islanders and their environment for the better.

And we talk to our partner World Resources Institute and hear from the people who built and continue to develop Resource Watch – the unique online platform that unlocks and presents an ever-growing number of datasets on the status of the planet.

Optimism is not just a nice ingredient. I see it as an expression of the perseverance and dedication all of you have. Without you, we won’t have a chance to secure a healthy planet. Without you, there would be no reason for any optimism. I often think of the words of Margaret Mead:

”Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.“

With warm greetings,

On behalf of the DOB Ecology team.