Scientific Evidence and Reports
Reports
Protecting 30% of the planet for nature: costs, benefits and economic implications
In the most comprehensive report to date on the economic implications of protecting nature, over 100 economists and scientists find that the global economy would benefit from the establishment of far more protected areas on land and at sea than exist today. The report considers various scenarios of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean to find that the benefits outweigh the costs by a ratio of at least 5-to-1. The report offers new evidence that the nature conservation sector drives economic growth, delivers key non-monetary benefits and is a net contributor to a resilient global economy.
Half Earth Project, E.O. Wilson
Leading scientists, including E.O Wilson, have advocated for protecting half of the Earth, noting that such action would protect 85 percent of species from extinction.
IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
The IPBES global assessment that was released in May 2019 included a sobering description of the state of the world’s biodiversity, noting that 1 million species are threatened with extinction. Among the recommended actions in the assessment was “expanding and effectively managing the current network of protected areas.”
5th Edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook Draft Summary for Policymakers
The Draft Summary for Policymakers of the 5th Edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook noted the progress made towards achieving Aichi Target 11 and called for “major increases in the extent and effectiveness of well-connected protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.”
Living Planet Report (2018, 2020), WWF
The Living Planet Index, a rich source of this information, can tell us about threats at the species population level. This more granular level of data has already highlighted different responses in different species of penguins in western Antarctica. The Living Planet Index also tracks the state of global biodiversity by measuring the population abundance of thousands of vertebrate species around the world. The latest index shows an overall decline of 60% in population sizes between 1970 and 2014. Species population declines are especially pronounced in the tropics, with South and Central America suffering the most dramatic decline, an 89% loss compared to 1970. Freshwater species numbers have also declined dramatically, with the Freshwater Index showing an 83% decline since 1970.
Making Money Local: Can Protected Areas Delivers Both Economic Benefits and Conservation Objectives?, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (DRAFT)
This report is a contribution to a programme, starting in 2003, on wider benefits of area-based conservation to human society, including contributions to food and water security, disaster risk reduction, human health, recreational, cultural and spiritual concerns. The work has latterly taken place through the Natural Solutions specialist group of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas involving many partners. WWF and the World Bank supported the “Arguments for Protection” series, seven reports and a book, looking at benefits from protected areas. Results were reported in the CBD Secretariat’s technical series and reflected in several critical decisions by Parties. WWF helped development of the Protected Area Benefits Assessment Tool. Organisations such as the UN Development Programme, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Environmental Facility and Institute for European Environmental Policy have been involved in this work, which formed a major stream of the 2014 World Parks Congress in Sydney.
Valuing Nature Conservation: A methodology for quantifying the benefits of protecting the planet’s natural capital, McKinsey & Company
We employed advanced geospatial analytics to create and evaluate alternative nature conservation scenarios and explore trade-offs. Natural capital is distributed unevenly across the Earth’s surface, so conservation costs and feasibility at the local level also vary—sometimes dramatically. We tackled some of those superlocal considerations by dividing the planet’s surfaces into “pixels”—land areas of 5 kilometers by 5 kilometers and marine areas of 30 kilometers by 30 kilometers—for a total of around 6 million pixels. We then overlaid this global map with thousands of spatial data layers covering a range of variables (such as biodiversity, carbon stock, and human footprint) to establish a baseline for nature conservation and define six alternative scenarios to maximize the value from expanded conservation. In each scenario, we assessed the impact of expanded conservation on climate change, jobs, GDP, zoonotic disease risk, and biodiversity and calculated the additional operating costs of conservation that may be required.
Criteria and Guidelines for Identifying Other Effective Area Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, National Biodiversity Authority of India and the UNDP
The publication provides the criteria and guidelines developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to identify OECMs in India. A 14-category classifcation, clustered under three broad groups- terrestrial, waterbodies, and marine, has been developed by India, covering a broad spectrum of potential OECMs in India including unique agricultural systems, biodiversity parks, industrial estates, coastal waterbodies, and important marine biodiversity areas.
Scientific Studies/Research
Global deal for Nature, Science Advances
The link between climate and biodiversity is strong and threats are mutually reinforcing as the destruction of ecosystems exacerbates climate change and the latter also accelerates the extinction of species. In recent years, 15 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions came from forest clearing and fires, over a dozen global experts noted that if we protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 - in addition to conserving an additional 20 percent of the planet as climate stabilization areas - we can effectively both conserve biodiversity and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Eight urgent, fundamental and simultaneous steps needed to restore ocean health, and the consequences for humanity and the planet of inaction or delay, Aquatic Conservation
This study synthesized what experts identified as the priority actions are needed to avert ecological disaster in the global ocean and proposes eight measures which, if acted upon simultaneously, would represent major progress towards recovering ocean health and safeguarding planetary and human wellbeing – the overall effect being far more than if the actions were implemented in isolation. They form a purposely ambitious agenda for governments and senior policy advisers and decision‐makers. This is because the challenges we face are now so vast that grand ambition, strong leadership and direction are needed if we are to avoid reaching ecological thresholds beyond which ocean health will decline abruptly.
Bolder Thinking for Conservation, Conservation Biology
An analysis of numerous studies and reviews concluded that 25 - 75 percent of a typical region must be managed for conservation in order to meet biodiversity conservation goals.
Effective Coverage Targets for Ocean Protection, Conservation Letters
A comprehensive review of the literature on marine protected areas found that the average recommendation for how much of the world’s ocean must be protected in order to achieve conservation related goals was 37 percent.
Area-Based Conservation Beyond 2020: A global survey of conservation scientists, Parks
The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force surveyed 335 conservation scientists from 81 countries and reported “very strong support for large-scale percentage area conservation targets, in the order of 50 percent of the Earth” in addition to overwhelming agreement that the current spatial target to protect 17 percent of the world’s land and freshwater and 10 percent of the ocean is insufficient to conserve biodiversity.
A Review of Evidence for Area-Based Conservation Targets for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Parks
In November 2019, a group of IUCN experts published a review of the literature on area based conservation and - amongst other findings - concluded that “the global protection of a minimum of 30 percent and up to 70 percent, or even higher, of the land and sea on Earth is well supported in the literature. The call for 50 percent of the Earth is a mid-point of these values and is supported by a range of studies.
30% land conservation and climate action reduces tropical extinction risk by more than 50%, Ecography
A study published in February, 2020 in Ecography found that conserving 30 percent of land area cuts extinction risk in half across all known tropical vascular plants, birds and mammals. The paper was authored by 21 leading biodiversity and climate scientists.
Global conservation of species’ niches, Nature
Environmental change is rapidly accelerating, and many species will need to adapt to survive. Ensuring that protected areas cover populations across a broad range of environmental conditions could safeguard the processes that lead to such adaptations. However, international conservation policies have largely neglected these considerations when setting targets for the expansion of protected areas. This study shows that of 19,937 vertebrate species globally—the representation of environmental conditions across their habitats in protected areas is inadequate for 4,836 (93.1%) amphibian, 8,653 (89.5%) bird and 4,608 (90.9%) terrestrial mammal species. Expanding existing protected areas to cover these gaps would encompass 33.8% of the total land surface—exceeding the current target of 17% that has been adopted by governments. Conversely, it also shows that planning for the expansion of protected areas without explicitly considering environmental conditions would marginally reduce the land area required to 30.7%, but that this would lead to inadequate niche representation for 7,798 (39.1%) species.
Area Requirements to Safeguard Earth's Marine Species, One Earth
Despite global policy commitments to preserve Earth's marine biodiversity, many species are in a state of decline. Using data on 22,885 marine species, this study identifies 8.5 million km2 of priority areas that complement existing areas of conservation and biodiversity importance. New conservation priorities are found in over half (56%) of all coastal nations, including key priority regions in the northwest Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. This research identifies where different conservation actions, ranging from marine protected areas to broader policy approaches, might best overcome anthropogenic threats to these areas. It shows 26%–41% of the ocean (depending on targets used for species representation) needs to be effectively managed and conserved through a combination of site-based actions and broad policy responses to achieve global conservation and sustainable development agendas.
Articles
Conservation successes overshadowed by more species declines, IUCN
Successful conservation action has boosted the populations of the Iberian Lynx and the Guadalupe Fur Seal, while the African Golden Cat, the New Zealand Sea Lion and the Lion are facing increasing threats to their survival, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Ninety-nine percent of tropical Asian slipper orchids – some of the most highly prized ornamental plants – are threatened with extinction.
Photograph by Frida Bredesen, Unsplash (Banner).