Saving Earth’s dwindling wildlife from the brink of extinction might seem like a daunting, if not insurmountable task.
But scientists now say that there is still an affordable and achievable option to prevent ‘the sixth great extinction of life on Earth’.
In a new paper published today, an international team of researchers argue that prioritising just 1.2 per cent of the land could save 75 per cent of the planet’s plant and animal species.
The researchers identified 16,825 areas covering approximately 164 million hectares which could prevent all predicted extinctions if they are adequately protected.
However, the researchers warn that we need to act fast and that the window to prevent the next mass extinction is rapidly closing.
Researchers have identified 16,825 areas covering just 1.2 per cent of the world’s surface that could prevent all predicted extinctions if they were properly conserved
By comparing global biodiversity data and the extent of areas already protected by conservation efforts, the researchers identified the most critical areas for protection – which they call ‘Conservation Imperatives’.
In total, these sites are home to over 4,700 different threatened plants, animals, and insects in some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.
Researchers are far from discovering all species on Earth but it is estimated that about 25 per cent of all plants are now threatened.
The IUCN currently lists 44,016 as threatened by extinction, 9,760 of which are considered critically endangered.
However, the IUCN list also includes species who live in the oceans, which was outside the scope of this study and so would not be included in any Conservation Imperatives.
Co-author Andy Lee, from non-governmental organization Resolve, says: ‘These include not only mammals and birds that rely on large intact habitats, like the tamaraw in the Philippines and the Celebes crested macaque in Sulawesi Indonesia, but also range-restricted amphibians and rare plant species.’
Already, about 17 per cent of the Earth’s surface is protected but the researchers argue that 1.2 per cent of critical areas should be the next regions to be prioritised.
By protecting vital areas in countries like Indonesia (pictured) where species are highly at risk of extinction, the world’s resources could be used more efficiently
Between 2018 and 2023 the expansion of conservation areas brought an additional 1.2 million square kilometres of land under protection.
However, only 0.11 million square kilometres of those areas overlapped with the Conservation Imperatives identified in this paper.
If all of that progress had been targeted on land designated as a Conservation Imperative, 73 per cent of these critical areas would now be protected.
The researchers work is meant to supplement a UN initiative called the ’30 by 30′ agreement – where 30 per cent of the Earth should be protected by 2030
This principle was agreed on in 2022 at a meeting COP15 in Edinburgh, but the researcher say this 1.2 per cent should be the immediate focus.
‘Most countries have signed on to the Global Biodiversity Framework and the call for protecting 30% of the Earth by 2030,’ said lead author Eric Dinerstein, director of biodiversity and wildlife solutions at Resolve.
‘We are proposing that the 1.2 per cent of land that needs additional protection become the first target of this assembled group of nations.’
Researchers argue that this 1.2 per cent figure is highly achievable and less than previous estimates.
Saving all of the conservation sites is estimated to cost $263 billion, but saving those in the tropics would only cost $169 billion and would prevent the majority of extinctions
However, the 16,825 Conservation Imperatives are not distributed evenly around the globe and are rather densely concentrated in regions like the tropics.
The top ten countries with the most Conservation Imperatives make up 70 per cent of all sites.
While the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Colombia alone account for 59 per cent of all sites globally.
These sites are so geographically concentrated that protecting just 0.74 per cent of land in the tropics would prevent the majority of near-term extinctions.
And, because 38 per cent of these areas are already within 2.5km (1.6 miles) of an existing protected area, the cost of conserving all the havens is lower than might be expected, the team claim.
Animals like the Celebes crested macaque (pictured) rely on large intact areas so targeted intervention is needed to save them
The tamaraw (pictured) only lives in certain areas of the Philippines and only about 400 exist in the wild. By focusing on the small, biodiverse region this where animal still lives, more extinctions could be prevented
The total cost of preserving all Conservation Imperatives at all latitudes is estimated to be $263 billion.
But the researchers estimate it would only cost around $34 billion per year over the next five years to conserve all of the Conservation Imperatives in the tropics.
Mr Lee points out: ‘This represents less than 0.2% of the United States’ GDP, less than 9% of the annual subsidies benefiting the global fossil fuel industry, and a fraction of the revenue generated from the mining and agroforestry industries each year.’
At the lowest end of the estimate, the majority of global extinctions could be avoided for as little as $25 billion a year.
The researchers identified regions called Conservation Imperatives which are home to ‘endemic’ species like this Proboscis Monkey. These species are range-restricted, meaning they only live in very specific areas
Key habitats like the forests of Indonesia (pictured) are still being destroyed at an alarming rate
The total estimate is also likely to be at the higher end of what would actually be needed according to Mr Dinerstein.
Mr Dinerstein stresses that this research is not suggesting governments try to only save 1.2 per cent of the world.
Instead, he argues that the Conservation Imperatives are ‘the next 1.2 per cent that should be added’.
He says: ‘We believe that we need to protect 50 per cent of Earth to avoid catastrophic climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, prevent the collapse of ecosystems and the emergence of future pandemics.
‘We are simply stating that the new areas added should focus first on this 1.2 per cent – it’s a matter of strategic sequencing of effort.’
The researchers suggest prioritising the 1.2 per cent of the globe containing the Conservation Imperatives such as Brazil (pictured) to prevent the next mass extinction
But, while this study offers a possible route to preserving the world’s biodiversity, we may not have long to take it.
In 2021, world leaders signed the Glasgow Declaration, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
Unfortunately, since then deforestation has remained stubbornly high, with 3.7 million hectares of tropical forest destroyed in 2023.
That is the equivalent of losing 10 football fields every minute of the year, a rate nearly identical to that in 2019 before the declaration was signed.
As deforestation in parts of the Amazon (pictured) remains stubbornly high, some scientists worry we will end up in a mass extinction scenario unless action is taken soon to save these key pockets of biodiversity
In regions such as Indonesia, large areas of forest are routinely burned to make way for palm oil plantations.
And in Brazil, illegal forestry and mining operations lead to deforestation on a large scale in the Amazon Rainforest.
Many experts warn that rapid habitat loss combined with the effects of human-induced climate change is leading to the ‘sixth great extinction’.
The last mass extinction event occurred 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit Earth, wiping out 78 per cent of all species.
Some now worry that humanity is on track to replicate a similarly destructive event due to our own actions.
