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Our goal is simple: protect half the Earth. Getting there is possible only if we work together. Discover how others are confronting the complex issues facing conservation today, and learn how Nature Needs Half is promoting problem-solving to overcome these challenges.

Masada National Park, Israel. Photo by Rob Bye.

Progress In Canada's Boreal Forest Shows We Can Protect Half Of Nature

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 06/1/17

Originally posted on 15 May 2017, by Jeff Wells on the Huffington Post In the midst of a steady stream of grim reports about the environment, a new study offers a welcome ray of hope. Researchers have determined that there are still hundreds of regions around the globe healthy enough to help maintain clean air and water, support rich animal and plant life and slow climate change. If we act...

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What is needed to protect our wild lands, waters, and animals?

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 06/1/17

Originally published on 2 May 2017, by Jeff Wells on CPAWS How many people know the truth about what is needed to maintain our wild animals, plants, clean air, clean water, and other values that keep us humans alive and healthy? Still not enough, apparently, as the last global protected areas target that most countries of the world signed on to in 2010 (the so-called Aichi target) was to protect...

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If we want a whole Earth, Nature Needs Half: a response to Büscher et al.

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 06/1/17

Published on 27 April 2017, Cambridge University Press Büscher et al.'s (2016) recent article ‘Half-Earth or Whole Earth? Radical ideas for conservation, and their implications’ raises some important issues for conservation, but it paints a misleading picture of the Nature Needs Half movement. Nature Needs Half expresses three main tenets: (1) habitat loss and degradation are the leading causes of biodiversity loss, (2) current protected areas are not extensive enough...

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Protecting Half Is Still Possible

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 04/14/17

  An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm A new study published in BioScience today examines a bold new approach to halting the world’s extinction crisis through a strategy to protect 50% of the Earth’s land mass. Many vertebrate species have vanished over the past 5 decades or have become critically endangered and the rate of extinction is accelerating. If habitat conversion continues unabated, key ecosystems could collapse,...

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Taking Action Today: Establishing Protected Areas for Canada's Future

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 03/30/17

Report of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Submitted by Deborah Schulte, Chair, Canada House of Commons, March 2017 Specific mention of Nature Needs Half on page 27: "Considerable testimony supported the concept of Aichi Target 11 setting minimum, interim targets. Regarding terrestrial protected areas, much testimony was given in support of the idea articulated by Harvey Locke that “nature needs half” – that the ultimate goal should...

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Harvey wants half

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 03/7/17

Published in the January/February 2017 issue of Canadian Geographic Harvey Locke, founder of the monumental Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, talks about how Y2Y continues to evolve as it turns 20 and why the Nature Needs Half conservation edict is gaining momentum Harvey Locke thinks big — continentally, actually — but most importantly, he follows through. In 1997, he and an ensemble of conservationists and scientists founded the Yellowstone to...

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Nature Needs Half: A Necessary and Hopeful New Agenda for Protected Areas (US version)

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 01/22/15

By: Harvey Locke, originally published through The George Wright Society © 2014 Americans celebrated a milestone in global conservation this year: the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. For many, wilderness designated under it has become the gold standard of nature protection in the US. While few protected areas in the world can match designated wilderness in a US national park for ensuring nature’s well-being, it is well to remember...

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Nature Needs Half: A Necessary and Hopeful New Agenda for Protected Areas

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 11/7/14

Originally published in the Nature New South Wales Journal Article by: Harvey Locke, Founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, writer and photographer Conservation targets should be based on what is necessary to protect nature in all its expressions. When, in 1988, the Brundtland report called for tripling the world’s protected area estate (which was then at 3 to 4 per cent of the land area) there was a strong belief...

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Nature Needs Half in the Earth Island Journal

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 11/7/14

Originally published in the Earth Island Journal by William H. Funk Conservation group promoting an ambitious new proposal for wilderness protection During the last half century conservationists around the world have won some impressive victories to protect wild places. Here in the US, the Wilderness Act preserves some 110 million acres of public land. Private holdings by groups like The Nature Conservancy safeguard tens of millions of additional acres. The idea...

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Go WILD...For a Change

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 07/25/14

Article originally published in Sanctuary Asia magazine, February 2013, by Vance G. Martin, president of The WILD Foundation "Our climate is on steroids" is the catchy metaphor used by Dr. Gerald Meehl of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado. One of those rare scientists with a flair for communication, Dr. Meehl makes a good comparison when he likens greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to steroids in the body of a champion...

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Boreal Birds Need Half: Maintaining North America's Bird Nursery and Why It Matters

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 05/5/14

  The North American Boreal Forest has been dubbed "North America's Bird Nursery" due to its impressive role in supporting migratory birds. The statistics are astonishing:   –  Between 1-3 billion birds representing more than 300 species flock to the boreal each spring to find summer nesting habitat. –  Once the young have hatched, 3-5 billion birds migrate back south toward their winter habitat—many as close as the U.S. and some as far...

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Two Yukon First Nations and Two Yukon Environmental Organizations launch Legal Action against Yukon Government to protect Peel River Watershed

Posted in News & Publications, Papers & Publications on 01/27/14

  Press Release: Two Yukon First Nations and Two Yukon Environmental Organizations launch Legal Action against Yukon Government to protect Peel River Watershed  January 27, 2014 Introduction:  Vancouver, BC – Today in Vancouver Thomas R. Berger, O.C., Q.C. announced that a lawsuit is being filed against the Yukon Government on behalf of two Yukon First Nations and two Yukon environmental organizations. Berger and his clients, the First Nation of Nacho Nyak...

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