A Global Safety Net for Biodiversity and Climate

Saving the diversity and abundance of life on Earth

RESOLVE provides science, coordination, and thought leadership for efforts focused on protecting at least half the world in an interconnected way. In the fall of 2020, we published the first global-scale analysis of terrestrial areas essential for biodiversity and climate resilience. Totaling 50.4% of the Earth’s land, the Global Safety Net highlights the importance of protecting and restoring the natural world to address three converging crises – climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the emergence of novel viruses such as COVID-19. The research effort builds upon an array of global-scale data sets to identify areas that require conservation beyond the 15.1% of land currently protected. The Global Safety Net has been featured in a number of popular press articles and is available for viewing via a web app.

To achieve a world half protected will require several decades of effort and extensive support from groups working on the ground in various countries around the world. To this end, we support the Nature Needs Half Network and their efforts to build grassroots efforts around the world. Our studies on An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm (2017) and a Global Deal for Nature (2019) helped form the basis for calls to create a companion agreement to the Paris Climate Agreement, focused on the conservation and restoration of nature.