AN ALLIANCE FOR SPECIES, PLACES, AND PEOPLE

Science illuminates the where and the how, but that is just the starting point. Only people can put science into action. If we are going to make real change and reimagine our relationship to nature, we must collaborate with people in the places where they live and, together create enduring conservation outcomes. Through engagement with people in their communities, we can ensure science moves from the lab to the land.

Places for a Half-Earth Future: Working Alongside Local and Indigenous Communities

In the 20th century, a certain Western approach to protecting nature was honed: set aside land to preserve it. In many ways, this approach was successful, and places that matter to us today are still here because of it.

However, the 21st century is challenging us in ways that call for more creative and human-centered solutions, solutions not solely defined by their scale or their focus on capital. Global warming is making species and their habitats behave differently. Energy systems and agricultural development are converting land at rates that no traditional or single conservation approach could possibly address. Furthermore, conservation work in the past excluded groups of people with valuable knowledge about lands and species and who often live within the areas most impacted. To support the survival of most species, we must realize a paradigm shift in conservation—to move from a chain of disconnected protected areas to a world where there is abundance for nature and people.

The Half-Earth Project has developed methods for identifying priority places for biodiversity conservation around the world. We call these Places for a Half-Earth Future: places that are high priorities for conservation because of their extraordinary species richness, abundance, and rarity. Community demand for a different kind of partnership in nurturing precious biodiversity resources is tremendous: from Bolivia to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti to the Philippines to the Alabama River Basin. Building on our long history with Gorongosa National Park, and deeply cognizant of inherent limitations in longstanding conservation approaches, the Half-Earth Project will support engagement with and service to those who know these places best and have the most at stake: their home. Of particular importance will be understanding the unique insights that empower communities, sharing those lessons more broadly, and ensuring benefits accrue to the people who are caring for their resources.

Half-Earth Chairs and Scholars

The Half-Earth Project is championing research to better understand our world, nurture future biodiversity stewardship, and perpetuate conservation efforts worldwide. Scientists have counted almost 2 million distinct life forms; however, that is a mere fraction of what is still waiting to be found. Without deeper knowledge of our planet’s biodiversity, we cannot halt the mass extinction of species.

By accelerating the effort to discover, describe, and conduct natural history studies for every one of the 10 million species estimated to exist, and investing in the people who call these places home, we can inform conservation efforts so they have maximum effect in protecting endangered species and ecosystems.

One of the ways the Half-Earth Project is making that happen is through its Chairs and Scholars program, which enhances the best of biodiversity scholarship by supporting scientists around the world at different stages in their careers who are advancing knowledge and leadership.

 Chairs are selected for their research leadership and ability to be role models and mentors for the next generation of biodiversity researchers in their region and globally.

 Scholars are the next generation of biodiversity research leaders in developing countries who work with Chairs to advance their learning and research.

Chairs and Scholars bolster the Half-Earth goal by providing informed assessments of the unique socioeconomic needs and conservation priorities in landscapes of global importance, and, in turn, the Half-Earth Project contributes to their career advancement in the natural sciences. By working together, we are advancing the science—as well as the scientists—that will inform and create new solutions to biodiversity loss throughout the world.

Our inaugural Chairs and Scholars are in Mozambique. This campaign will fund the expansion of the program to Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, the U.S. and North America, Europe, and other sites in Africa. Chairs and Scholars will emerge as a global network of researchers giving voice, taking action, and contributing to the Half-Earth Project goals and mission while developing as a diverse cohort of conservation practitioners and natural scientists.

Half-Earth Research and Conservation Fellows

An effective foundation for sustainable conservation solutions requires local engagement. A new HalfEarth Fellows program is supporting remarkable scientists and communicators in developing economies who want to expand their expertise and learn new methodologies. Fellows engage in production, interpretation, and use of Half-Earth Project conservation tools in their region.

Supporting the Next Generation of Scientists

As a young woman, Norina Vicente of Tete, Mozambique, saw E.O. Wilson on TV talking about one of the planet’s most biodiverse areas, Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, which was right there in her backyard. That program was part of her inspiration to become a scientist.

After earning her Bachelor of Science, Vicente received an internship at Gorongosa, where she participated in advanced seminars on bioinformatics and biodiversity survey methods. In 2018, she joined the Department of Scientific Services full-time as a research technician in the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory. In 2022, she became a Half-Earth Project Scholar and is now pursuing a Master of Science in San Francisco, with her research focused on the ants of Mozambique.

Vicente reminds us how nature and science can empower people, especially young women. At Half-Earth Day, she said, “if we have well-educated women with the same opportunity as men—not dependent on men,” then we can realize the full potential of community engagement in conservation. She noted that when a woman is educated and empowered, she can lift up her family and community.

Calling upon her experiences growing up in rural Mozambique and now as a part of the Half-Earth Project, Vicente is advancing her contributions to science while advocating for gender equity in decision making, science, education, and technology.