RESOLVE Scientists and Other Leading Conservation Biologists Lead Call for “Global Deal for Nature” to Protect Half the Earth
Scientists from RESOLVE’s Biodiversity and Wildlife program co-authored “A Global Deal for Nature: Guiding Principles, Milestones, and Targets”, a paper published today in Science Advances.
The “Global Deal for Nature” (GDN) is a science-based, time-bound plan to conserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth. It calls for protecting half of nature by 2030, offering guiding principles and milestones to reach this goal in order to tackle climate change and safeguard biodiversity. In order to avoid what scientists are calling the Sixth Mass Extinction and to help the world stay below the recommended target of a 1.5°C rise in average global temperature, the proposed GDN targets 30% of Earth to be formally protected by 2030 under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), with an additional 20% of lands designated as Climate Stabilization Areas (CSAs). Climate Stabilization Areas are areas where conservation of vegetative cover occurs and greenhouse gas emissions are prevented, which can be achieved under various forms of land management.
RESOLVE BWS Program Director
Dr. Eric Dinerstein is the lead author of a coalition of 19 prominent scientists and conservationists on the Global Deal for Nature paper, which also includes RESOLVE’s
Dr. Carly Vynne,
Sanjiv Fernando, and
Nathan Hahn, as well as Dr. Tom Lovejoy who serves on RESOLVE’s Board of Advisors. Other organizations represented by co-authors on the GDN paper include the National Geographic Society, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Google, and Microsoft, among others. The concept of a Global Deal for Nature was
first proposed in 2017, and this new paper demonstrates why it is needed now and provides a roadmap to save life on Earth and allow human societies to thrive.
Sign the petition calling on world leaders to support a Global Deal for Nature that protects and restores half of the Earth’s lands and oceans: https://www.globaldealfornature.org/
Insights from RESOLVE Scientists
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Pairing a new ‘Global Deal for Nature’ with the Paris Climate Agreement would give us the best chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change, of conserving threatened species, and of ensuring the health of the ecosystems that are so essential for sustaining life on Earth.
Dr. Eric Dinerstein, Director of Biodiversity and Wildlife, RESOLVE
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"The Global Deal for Nature is the first effort to establish science-based conservation targets to protect life on Earth on all three realms – terrestrial, freshwater, and marine – and proposes enabling policies that make these milestones and targets more easily achievable."
Sanjiv Fernando, Research Associate, RESOLVE
“A successful GDN, done right, a GDN could spur action that will have direct and positive benefits for local and regional communities and especially indigenous peoples, for our economies as well as for our spirits.”
Dr. Carly Vynne, Strategic Partner, RESOLVE
"The new analysis demonstrates a Global Deal for Nature is clearly way overdue."
Dr. Tom Lovejoy, Professsor at George Mason University, and Member of RESOLVE's Board of Advisors
Cover Image via Greg Asner and Nick Vaughn, ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
Eric Dinerstein, Carly Vynne, and Sanjiv Fernando
RESOLVE
April 19, 2019