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Ecology

A global plan for nature conservation

Nature volume 550, pages 48–49 (2017)Cite this article

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An international movement is calling for at least half of the Earth to be allocated for conservation. A global study now reveals that, in many ecoregions, enough habitat exists to reach this goal, and ideas are proposed for the next steps needed.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are the two greatest environmental challenges of our time. The 2015 Paris climate agreement states that global warming must be limited to a rise in temperature of less than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the greatest impacts of climate change1. This goal has served as a rallying point for global efforts to limit carbon emissions. However, a comparably clear, agreed target for the amount of natural space that should be conserved to address the biodiversity crisis has been much more elusive. Writing in BioScience, Dinerstein et al.2 analyse the current level of ecosystem protection on a global scale, and propose a way to address the problem of biodiversity loss.

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Figure 1: Lowland forest ecosystems of the Congo.

Liana Joseph

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Wildlife Conservation Society and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    James E. M. Watson

  2. the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, V2N 2M7, Canada

    Oscar Venter

Authors
  1. James E. M. Watson
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  2. Oscar Venter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James E. M. Watson.

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Watson, J., Venter, O. A global plan for nature conservation. Nature 550, 48–49 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24144

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