A CENTER FOR DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE ON EARTH

In other sectors, like public health, vast investments in centralized data systems used by both public and private stakeholders ensure communities have the information to leverage the best solutions. Identifying viable remedies for global biodiversity conservation requires a similar centralized information hub that can be the basis for coordinated solutions. That is what the Half-Earth Project is creating.

Around the world, our science is identifying places that are most significant in terms of their abundance, richness, and rarity of life, as well as offering compelling opportunities for innovation in conservation. The Half-Earth Project and our partners are working to provide evidence-based, actionable information to local communities, governments, environmental organizations, and businesses. Our open access tools and technologies mean everyone can make conservation decisions using accurate data based in rigorous science.

The Half-Earth Project Map

If we are going to save species from extinction, we need a comprehensive atlas that maps Earth’s biodiversity and is accessible to everyone. Only then will we be able to make complex decisions about how to best preserve nature for all of life. With the international community committing to ambitious conservation goals for 2030, a global resource to illuminate possible paths becomes even more imperative.

The Half-Earth Project is on a mission to map the location and distribution of the planet’s species at a high enough resolution to allow for on-the-ground decisions to be made at a local level. Together with our partners, we have developed the Half-Earth Project Map: a global assessment of biodiversity richness and rarity at 1–50 km. scale for all terrestrial and marine vertebrates and at 1 km. to countryscale for hundreds of thousands of invertebrate and plant species. No other public tool contains this level of global species data. Designed for a wide variety of users, the map is easy to read and manipulate and can be accessed by anyone in any community. Coupled with data showing human pressures, irrecoverable carbon, and existing protected areas, the map reveals priority areas for conservation. Unique features of the map are being adopted across the world.

 The Species Protection Index measures the amount and location of currently protected land in a country and the number and location of species found both inside and outside of these protected areas. The Species Protection Index ranges from 0–100, with 100 reflecting a country practicing good stewardship and promoting equitable conservation efforts within its borders. Like a FICO score for biodiversity, the Species Protection Index is an important indicator for success that can be used to determine how a country is doing in any given area regarding global biodiversity stewardship and where additional attention is needed.

The Species Protection Index is essential for objectivity around progress, as well as for addressing the uneven pattern of conservation globally. Some places are global priorities for conservation, but

ALL places have a unique array of life to steward. The Species Protection Index demonstrates that in certain places, 30% of land and water protected will be enough to support the biosphere: in other places, even less will suffice. But overall, we need half.

 National Report Cards summarize a country’s conservation efforts. They can be used to explore conservation progress, needs, and challenges specific to each country and can help target support and resources accordingly.

In the next phase of map development, new technologies—such as sensor-based and cloud computation—will open entirely new avenues for visualizing what we know and predicting what we don’t yet know about biodiversity.