Almost half of Earth's land requires conservation to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services

A new study published in the journal Science on June 3, 2022, has revealed that 44 per cent of the Earth's surface area, or 64 million square kilometres (24.7 million square miles), has to be conserved in order to protect biodiversity.

Dr. James R. Allan of the University of Amsterdam headed the team that employed advanced geospatial algorithms to map the best places on the globe to save terrestrial species and ecosystems. They also used spatially explicit land-use scenarios to estimate how much of this land will be threatened by human activity by 2030.

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"Our study is the current best estimate of how much land we must conserve to stop the biodiversity crisis—it is essentially a conservation plan for the planet," said lead author James Allan.

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"We must act fast. Our models show that over 1.3 million km2 of this important land--an area larger than South Africa--is likely to have its habitat cleared for human uses by 2030, which would be devastating for wildlife."

The finding has crucial policy implications because nations are presently negotiating a post-2020 global biodiversity framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will ideally come into effect later this year with new biodiversity goals and targets. This will set the conservation agenda for the next decade or more, and governments will be required to report on progress toward these goals on a regular basis.

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(with inputs from agencies)