Lay of the land: terrestrial conservation efforts cover a wider area than thought

Research shows we’re surprisingly close to conserving 30% of the world’s land

New research suggests almost 27% of the world’s land is within conservation areas - substantially more than the officially reported 18.5%. A new study, led by the Durrell Institute of  Conservation and Ecology - due to be published in Nature on Wednesday - suggests we may be closer to the 30% land coverage target than previously thought, with the researchers cautioning that despite this many habitats remain overlooked. With COP17 approaching, we…

Lay of the land: terrestrial conservation efforts cover a wider area than thought

Governments around the world have pledged to conserve 30% of the terrestrial realm by 2030, but official data suggest that the target is barely halfway to being met. A combined global and national-level data set now shows that up to 27% of land area is conserved, but gaps in ecological representation remain. Coverage of protected and conserved areas is higher than expected, but ecological representativeness could be improved.

Earth May Already Be Far Closer to the 30x30 Conservation Goal Than We

A Nature study combining national datasets with official statistics estimates that conservation areas already cover 26.81 percent of Earth's land, far above the reported 18.5 percent, though ecological representativeness remains poor.