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Cornell, Collaborators: Link Between Conservation and Human Wellbeing
New York Ag Connection - 11/29/2022

In just a few weeks, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene in Montreal to adopt new targets for biodiversity conservation, restoration and management. Along with the global commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change, these three frameworks will influence sustainable development for the rest of the decade.

New research from a global team of experts, including Natural Capital Project scientists at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, demonstrates how nature conservation contributes to human wellbeing at local and global scales. Their work also maps the ecosystems that are not only essential to the nearby local communities, but contribute to the well-being of every person on the planet.

Collaborators and partners include: Basque Foundation for Science; Carleton University; Colorado State University; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biologia Vegetal; Conservation International; Cornell University; King's College London; Nature Conservancy of Canada; Penn State University; SPRING; Stanford University, Natural Capital Project; SYSTEMIQ; The Nature Conservancy; UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; University of Bern; University of Minnesota, College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences; University of Siena; University of Tasmania; University of the Basque Country, Basque Center for Climate Change; Western Washington University; World Resources Institute; and World Wildlife Fund.

Published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the researchers' findings show that conserving 30 percent of the Earth's land and 24 percent of coastal waters would sustain 90 percent of nature's contribution to human wellbeing. This vital relationship between humans and nature has enormous cultural and economic value by providing food, drinking water, protection from hazards, mental and physical well-being and many other priceless benefits.

Measuring and mapping the areas that provide significant benefits to people provides the information decision-makers need to better account for impacts on local communities when choosing conservation policies and investments. And decision-makers need not decide between providing natural benefits to people or protecting animal species. In fact, this analysis shows that prioritizing these critical natural areas and the benefits to people they provide simultaneously advances development, conservation and climate mitigation goals.

Prioritizing conservation, protection and restoration efforts to the areas identified as critical natural assets could maintain a high proportion of current natural benefits to people with significant efficiency. Direct benefits of these critical natural areas are widespread -- 6.1 billion people live within one hour's travel and 3.7 billion people live downstream of the critical areas. Many more people may be impacted by the material benefits that enter the global supply chain.

Historically, targets for protecting ecosystems and biodiversity have been criticized for inadequately accounting for the needs of people, particularly the needs of local and Indigenous communities. Including nature's contributions to people is essential for making equitable and just conservation decisions.

"All people on the planet benefit from nature," says study lead author, Becky Chaplin-Kramer, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Minnesota. "What is striking is just how many benefit from a relatively modest proportion of our total global land area. If we can maintain these areas in their current state through a variety of conservation mechanisms that allow the types of use that make them so valuable, we can ensure that these benefits continue for years to come."

These valuable ecosystems can be found in every corner of the planet. Some are well-known environmental powerhouses, like the Congo Basin forests. Others may fly under-the-radar, like the Appalachians in the U.S., but each one is vital to the respective communities it serves. Importantly, every country has some critical areas that benefit local communities, often found in headwaters of large river basins or near heavily populated areas. Areas that remain globally important for climate mitigation and biodiversity, like the Amazon, cannot provide all the critical local benefits, so additional areas may require conservation attention, like Paraná River connecting the many population centers across central South America. Likewise, the headwaters of the Yangtze and Mekong rivers emerge as areas of key importance for many people in Asia.

Measuring and mapping the areas that provide significant benefits to people provides the information decision-makers need to better account for impacts on local communities when choosing conservation policies and investments. And decision-makers need not decide between providing natural benefits to people or protecting animal species. In fact, this analysis shows that prioritizing these critical natural areas and the benefits to people they provide simultaneously advances development, conservation, and climate mitigation goals.

The effort is not only the most comprehensive set of nature's contributions to people yet to be mapped, but the approach developed can be used at various decision-making scales and complemented with local expert and stakeholder input.

"Global maps can provide a big picture view, which can reveal large-scale patterns, but requires local context to make sense of and to make decisions for implementation. It's like how a mapping app on your phone might first give you an overview of where you're going, but if you really want to see what it will look like once you're there, you would switch to a street-level view -- you need both to really know where you are going," says Chaplin-Kramer. "Ultimately, we hope this information can be used alongside other diverse values of nature, including intrinsic values of species. Recognizing the way people benefit from and rely on nature can help create lasting buy-in for conservation."


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