Safeguarding Biodiversity Means Conserving 44% of Earth’s Land
Safeguarding biodiversity is crucial for the survival of Humanity and the entire ecosphere. Find out why new research calls for governments to increase global land conservation from 17% to 44% if we’re serious about preserving Earth’s ecosystems.
Our family cottage is very close to the Bruce Peninsula National Park. It includes a popular beach called Singing Sands.
When we first started heading up to The Bruce, Parks Canada hadn’t formed the national park yet. What’s now called Singing Sands was a wildlife preserve called Dorcas Bay that the Federation of Ontario Naturalists had established.
As a boy, I remember reading a rustic wooden plaque at Dorcas Bay commemorating a visit by the legendary pioneer naturalist John Muir. Muir was one of the first advocates for safeguarding biodiversity and was instrumental in hatching the idea of national parks.
Set Aside 64 Million Square Kilometres of Earth’s Land Area
All of this came to mind this week because of new research the journal Science has published. It shows that if we’re serious about wildlife conservation, we need to set aside about 64 million square kilometres of Earth’s land area.
These huge numbers are always hard to fathom, so to put in in perspective, that’s about 44% of Earth’s total land area. This news comes as governments are hammering out a post-2020 global biological framework for the UN Environment Programme’s Convention on Biological Diversity.
At the landmark Rio Earth Summit back in 1992, 150 heads of government signed the Convention for Biological Diversity. The international agreement has three objectives:
- The conservation of biological diversity
- The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity
- The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources