At times in recent years, I have felt despair about the worsening crisis facing nature. Mankind has already significantly altered 75% of our planet’s land and 66% of the oceans. Every day we are losing tens of thousands of acres of tropical rainforest. Up to 1 million species now face the risk of extinction.
A Maasai man walks with his livestock in search of grassland for them to graze at Ilangeruani village near Lake Magadi in Kenya on Nov. 9. Last week, in a U.N. biodiversity deal comparable in significance to the Paris climate accord, 196 countries announced in Montreal that they had agreed to conserve at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Brian Inganga/Associated Press, File
The natural world underpins our economies and – more crucially – our cultures and overall wellbeing. To say that the natural world is facing an existential threat is to say that we, all of mankind, are facing that threat.
There continue to be stories of progress – like growing tiger populations in India and Nepal and President Biden’s recent commitment to protect sacred tribal lands in Nevada. But scientists worry that it’s not enough.
In the past 12 years, the world has increased the amount of conservation on land from 15% to just under 17%. Only roughly 8% of the ocean is conserved. A wealth of studies show that these figures need to be far higher – at least 30% for land and for the ocean – in order to curb extinctions, increase carbon storage and preserve the benefits like food, water and medicine that nature provides us all.
Last week, the world took notice.
On Dec. 19 at a U.N. biodiversity summit in Montreal, 196 countries around the world followed the science and agreed to a new global deal for nature conservation, headlined by the commitment to conserve at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Leaders inside and outside of government around the world have praised the deal and compared it in significance to the Paris climate agreement.
The agreement on conserved areas, which many governments and even environmentalists viewed as impossible just several years ago, amounts to a collective pledge to double the amount of land conserved around the world and to quadruple the amount of the ocean that is conserved in just eight years. And it commits to focusing on the most important areas for biodiversity and to empowering Indigenous peoples and local communities by respecting their rights and recognizing their conserved territories as key to reaching the target. Indigenous leaders have called the agreement “historic” and a “major shift.”
In light of this breakthrough, I feel more hopeful than I have felt in the two decades I have spent working on these issues.
For the first time, the world has agreed to a conservation target that is at the same scale as the scope of the crisis. Countries listened to Indigenous peoples who asked to be part of the solution. And for all of the challenges and flaws of the negotiation process itself, countries ultimately came together and showed that multilateralism can still work in mobilizing a global response to the biggest, most complex problems.
The hard work – and the most important work – will be to implement this agreement and to hold countries accountable for their commitments. That task will require all of us, from scientists to Indigenous peoples to civil society, philanthropies and more.
It will require action at levels, including here in Maine. At the state level, Maine is well positioned to do its part, having already set a goal of protecting 30% of its land by 2030. With roughly 20% of Maine’s land currently conserved, reaching 30% by 2030 would represent roughly a doubling of the rate of conservation from the past three decades.
As the world takes on the monumental task of conserving the planet’s remaining nature, I hope that others will feel optimistic, too; encouraged that countries around the world have finally agreed to act collectively and with the level of ambition and urgency that science tells us is required.
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