A “Global Safety Net” to reverse biodiversity loss and stabilize Earth’s climate

2020/09/04 by Eric Dinerstein, Anup R. Joshi, Carly Vynne +8 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Environmental Science · Mathematics · Medicine · #Biodiversity #Biology #Climate change #Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management #Earth (classical element) #Ecology #Economics #Environmental health #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Mathematics #Medicine #Natural resource economics #Net (polyhedron) #Safety net #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance #Zoonotic diseases and public health

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb2824

openalex publication_date 2020/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

emissions from land conversion, and enhance natural carbon removal. This framework shows that, beyond the 15.1% land area currently protected, 35.3% of land area is needed to conserve additional sites of particular importance for biodiversity and stabilize the climate. Fifty ecoregions and 20 countries contribute disproportionately to proposed targets. Indigenous lands overlap extensively with the Global Safety Net. Conserving the Global Safety Net could support public health by reducing the potential for zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 from emerging in the future.

Citations

• An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm
• Bolder Thinking for Conservation
• High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change
• Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications for biodiversity conservation
• The last frontiers of wilderness: Tracking loss of intact forest landscapes from 2000 to 2013
• Natural climate solutions
• A Global Deal For Nature: Guiding principles, milestones, and targets

Cited by

• Integrating MaxEnt and InVEST modeling methods to identify priority areas for the conservation of emblematic and endemic wildlife in the Peruvian Tropical Andes
• EcoregionsTreeFinder—A Global Dataset Documenting the Abundance of Observations of > 45,000 Tree Species in 828 Terrestrial Ecoregions
• Maximizing the effectiveness of national commitments to protected area expansion for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem carbon under climate change
• Maximizing the effectiveness of national commitments to protected area expansion for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem carbon under climate change.
• Mapping the irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems
• Equity and justice should underpin the discourse on tipping points

Discussions

• https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb2824 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

Related

• An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm
• A Global Deal For Nature: Guiding principles, milestones, and targets
• The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity
• Whole‐Earth: A Conservation‐Planning Paradigm for a Changing Climate
• Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals