From our colleagues at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
WHEN: 27 Feb – 28 Feb 2018
WHERE: Huxley Lecture Theatre, Main Meeting Rooms, Zoological Society of London, Outer Circle, Regents Park, NW1 4RY 
REGISTER: www.zsl.org/ticket/safeguarding-space-for-nature-securing-our-future-both-days
We are rapidly losing Earth’s wild species and wild spaces, with global vertebrate populations set to decline by two-thirds by 2020. Under the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have pledged to protect, by this date, at least 17% land and freshwater and 10% ocean, particularly areas of importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, in systems of effective, equitable and ecologically connected protected and conserved areas. But is this target adequate, and, if not, what space needs to be conserved and how in order to sustain humans and the rest of life on earth?
Over the next few years, governments will be reviewing the current Strategic Plan and considering a new strategy to meet the vision of conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services and a healthy planet for all by 2050, as part of the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
As part of this process, this symposium will bring together international scientists, conservation practitioners, policy-makers, business leaders, civil society and donors to (1) review the science informing future area-based conservation targets, (2) evaluate the implications of various policy options, (3) provide balanced, evidence-based recommendations to Parties to the CBD and other policy processes and (4) raise awareness of the need for a more ambitious, holistic and effective strategy on space for nature, incorporating protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.  The symposium will complement and integrate the work of other groups reviewing this issue, such as the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force.
The outputs of the meeting will feed into post-2020 negotiations in the run up to the CBD’s 14th Conference of the Parties and the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development of the UN’s Economic and Social Council later in 2018 and help to ensure that nature conservation is at the heart of sustainable development.
Learn more about the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force at https://www.iucn.org/protected-areas/wcpa/what-we-do/beyond-aichi-targets
To be hosted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and National Geographic Society (NGS), in partnership with IUCN, UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and BirdLife International
See www.zsl.org/spacefornature for related activities and to watch ZSL’s film on space for nature.
Symposium flyer  Space for Nature symposium flyer (508 KB)
For further information, please contact the Jennifer Howes, Scientific Events Coordinator by emailing [email protected] or calling 0207 449 6227