The 30% Solution Is Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient for Saving Earth’s Biodiversity

Human actions are driving species to extinction about a thousand times faster than they diversify through evolution. Extinctions are primarily in ‘hotspot’ areas where high levels of habitat loss collide with concentrations of species with small geographical ranges. The principal means of preventing species extinctions is the creation of protected areas—yet most of these are in remote places, too hot, too dry, or too cold for human habitation—with few vulnerable species. Will expanding the protected-area network to 30% improve things?  Not if it’s business as usual, for more land will not equate to more species. In protecting more areas, quality matters, not quantity. Importantly, many protected areas are small and isolated. To maximise effectiveness, we must restore fragmented landscapes, allowing the remnant populations to connect and species to move in response to a heating global climate.

Dr Stuart Pimm | Professor of Conservation at Duke University

Dr Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation at Duke University, is a global leader in studying biodiversity, especially present-day extinctions and what the world can do to prevent them.  Pimm directs Saving Nature, a non-profit that uses donations for carbon-emissions offsets to fund conservation in areas of exceptional tropical biodiversity.  He was awarded the 2019 International Cosmos Prize for his ground-breaking research on endangered species and their habitats. His other international honours also include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2010) and the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006).

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