Protecting half of Earth's land requires a focus on specific ecoregions
In short: Researchers using a map of 846 terrestrial ecoregions found that only 12% of these areas currently meet the goal of being half protected. While 37% of ecoregions have enough unaltered habitat left to reach this target, another 24% are in critical danger, with an average of only 4% of natural habitat remaining.
This computational assessment highlights the urgent need for a global conservation strategy, such as a proposed 'Global Deal for Nature.' By focusing on ecoregion-scale protection and habitat restoration, the study suggests we can work toward protecting 50% of the terrestrial biosphere by 2050 to halt species extinction.
Why it matters: Achieving global biodiversity goals depends on targeted protection of ecoregions that still possess enough intact habitat.
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Sources
- Source: Research: Dinerstein et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm. BioScience. · cc-by-nc
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