The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity

New land target for safeguarding biodiversity

31 October 2022

Efforts to preserve biodiversity need to be ramped up if they are to be successful, with a new study estimating that at least 44% of the world’s land surface should be conserved.

The world is facing a biodiversity crisis, with habitat loss due to human activities posing the biggest threat. Estimates on how much land needs to be conserved by 2030 to safeguard biodiversity vary widely from 26% to 60% depending on the approach used.

Now, by developing a unified framework that combines complementary strategies, a team led by researchers from The University of Queensland in Australia has estimated that about 44% of the terrestrial surface (64 million square kilometres) needs to be conserved.

Since 1.8 billion people live on this land, conservation strategies will need to ensure their autonomy and self-determination, the researchers emphasize.

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References

1. Science 376, 1094–1101 (2022). doi: 10.1126/science.abl9127