Achieving an international conservation target to protect almost a third of the world’s land and sea in the next four years could directly affect the lives of almost half the people on the planet, finds a new report.
For better or worse, a huge number of people will be affected by efforts to achieve ‘30x30’ - the internationally-agreed conservation goal to protect and conserve at least 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030. How many people, and who they are, will depend on which aspects of nature are prioritised for protection - but in all scenarios this human context must be a key consideration if plans are to succeed for both people and nature.
That’s the message of a new report published in the journal Nature Communications, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute and involving a diverse international team of researchers and practitioners.
The team considered three approaches to conservation that would enable the world to reach 30x30, with the aim of reversing the decline of nature and boosting our resilience to climate change.
In an approach designed to protect as many different species and ecosystems as possible, they found that 46% of all people worldwide would live inside or within 10 kilometres of a conservation area.
