Nature Needs More

We’re on track to reach a global goal of protecting 17 percent of the land and 10 percent of the ocean by the end of 2020, but world leaders need to dramatically boost ambition — both on spatial targets and the inclusion of Indigenous peoples — in order to protect the natural world.

Nature is our life support system.

The natural world provides critical resources that sustain all life on Earth including human life — from the air we breathe and the water we drink, to the food we eat and the ecosystem services that counteract the damaging impacts of climate change. There is no substitute for all the ecosystem services nature provides.

Plant species that have been
cultivated for food
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People who depend on
coral reefs to protect against
storm surge & flooding
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We know that in protected areas, life comes back.

Wolves in Yellowstone

When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park after being locally extinct there for 70 years, ecosystems rebounded. After decades without wolves as a predator, grazing elk in the region had degraded landscapes, reducing the coverage of plants and small trees. With the reintroduction of wolves, elk changed their behavior, avoiding places where they faced threats from the wolves and allowing habitats for birds, otters, and aquatic life to bounce back.

Akagera National Park

After years of destruction from war, land conversion and poaching, life in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park is once again thriving. Akagera is one of the oldest national parks in Africa, and is one of only a handful of places on Earth where the “Big Five” (leopards, lions, Cape buffalo, elephants, and rhinoceros) can be found. But war turned the park into a battlefield and in 1997, the new government reduced the park by two thirds to accommodate resettlement of ethnic Tutsi and their 700,000 cattle. Wildlife, accustomed to roaming outside the newly-set boundaries, were hunted or poisoned. The park’s wildlife began to disappear; lions were gone by 2002 and the last black rhino was seen in 2007. But starting in 2009, the people of Rwanda made a commitment to rehabilitate the Akagera and began reintroducing wildlife. Now the populations of lions, rhinos and other wildlife are rebounding and the park is once again home to the “Big Five.”

Local Biodiversity Outlooks

Local Biodiversity Outlooks provides a snapshot of on-the-ground initiatives being led by Indigenous peoples and local communities that contribute to the successful implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity as well as other related global agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.