Title
Conserving at Least 30% of the Planet by 2030: What Should Count
Author(s)
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas; Wildlife Conservation Society; National Geographic; UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Published
2020
Abstract
The world is facing both a global biodiversity and a climate change crisis. There is growing recognition that we need to act now to address these inter-related challenges. Agreement on this comes from science-driven institutions like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as from human rights organizations and business-orientated bodies like the World Economic Forum. As governments negotiate the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, there is strong and growing global support for effectively protecting and conserving at least 30% of the earth’s land, sea and freshwater ecosystems by 2030, as a key requirement for halting and beginning to reverse biodiversity loss, as well as contributing to addressing the climate crisis. Protecting and conserving at least 30% by 2030 must be addressed in the context of recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, and combined with applying effective sustainability measures across the remaining 70% of the planet.
Biodiversity is lost when wildlife habitat is either degraded, often through fragmentation, or destroyed by human activities. Climate change amplifies these pressures. Well-managed protected and conserved areas are an essential part of solving the global biodiversity crisis while protecting carbon stocks in nature helps to address the climate crisis.
This brief seeks to bring clarity to the question of what could count toward the 30% global minimum target within the context of recognized area-based conservation measures and their ability to deliver positive long-term conservation outcomes. It is based on guidance from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other published sources, and is consistent with decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
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