A CATALYST FOR MORE PATHWAYS TO HALF

The impact of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and the Half-Earth Project ultimately will be measured by a long-term sea change in perspective and in the way we live our lives and steward our planet. The campaign will enable us to amplify the voices of and convene people working to solve the extinction crisis through policy engagement and communications, education programs, movement building, and inclusivity.

Policy Engagement in Support of Half-Earth

One of the Half-Earth Project’s greatest successes is inspiring the push for 30x30—the movement to protect 30% of land and water by 2030. In 2016, Dr. Wilson published Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, an urgent call to preserve the biodiversity of our planet in which he laid out the scientific case for conserving half the Earth. This book, along with subsequent public appeals by Dr. Wilson and others, is a crucial part of the origin story of 30x30, and the science of the Half-Earth Project is informing its evidence base.

The movement of 30x30 has galvanized nonprofits, academics, communities, and nations. This is a pivotal moment for biodiversity, with President Biden’s America the Beautiful plan unfolding in the U.S. and other countries committing to aggressive conservation goals.

The Half-Earth Project is proud to have helped ignite this massive push to protect more places, and we are committed to supporting its successful implementation, contributing our science, voice, and broad connections in policy arenas. By providing tools like the Half-Earth Project Map and the Species Protection Index , we will engage with and provide the necessary means for decision makers to change the course of our relationship with nature. We will advocate for policies and practices at global, national, and local levels that will protect biodiversity and the stability of the food, water, and air we all depend on. The campaign will build on our past contributions of influence and science, from participation in the post-2020 UN Biodiversity Framework process to inputs into the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas to a partnership with the Wildlands Network on “Saving America’s Biodiversity,” an advocacy event at the U.S. Capitol.