For Leadership and Coordinated Action for the Protection of Biodiversity and the Essential Processes Necessary for All Life to Flourish.
Our goal is to build an international coalition of conservation leaders across all sectors of society to coordinate on regional and international initiatives that protect and interconnect, on average, half of everyterrestrial and marine ecosystem. Only then do we ensure that nature has enough space to thrive and function on our behalf.
Until now, our species has only ever known a planet permeated by abundant and intact nature. Nature is essential (and has been a prerequisite) for the fulfillment of humanity’s most fundamental needs, the realization of our ingenuity, and the restoration of our spirits. It is time for society to fully embrace the essential role of nature in our lives and preserve its integrity for the benefit of all.
The Nature Needs Half Declaration affirms that it is the urgent responsibility and moral obligation of all nations to respect nature and preserve its vital functions which requires, on average, 50% of all land and seascapes protected and interconnected by 2030 to maintain Earth’s biodiversity and life-giving services.
We offer our full support to the growing number of communities at risk of losing traditional territories and lifeways to the destruction of their natural environment. We also stand in solidarity with the many practitioners of the best modern and traditional science who conclude that half the land and water must be protected to conserve ecological services, and to provide life support.
International recognition for the needs of nature is already accelerating. By 2020, at least 17% of all land and 10% of all marine areas will be conserved. But those percentages are insufficient and are not based on any scientific assessment of the extent of conservation required to preserve a healthy planet and people. Seventeen percent is not a science-based level of protection that will achieve representation of all species or ecosystems. Only where protected land is large, connected, and distributed across diverse habitats do threatened and functionally important species thrive. We are committed to tripling the percentage of areas currently protected. Conservation science is conclusive: Nature Needs Half.
We recognize that by organizing collectively, rather than acting in a fragmented fashion, under this principle we are a more effective force for the protection of nature. By working together under this principle we increase our chances of ending the biodiversity crisis and transforming the relationship between nature and society.
We call for others to join our network and align new and existing conservation efforts and investments with our movement to embrace the many, but ever diminishing, opportunities to defend nature and all life on Earth.