JOSÉ CARLOS BRITO PARTICIPATES IN A NEW STUDY THAT DEFINES A STRATEGY TO PROTECT EARTH’S LAND MASS

Many vertebrate species have vanished over the past 5 decades or have become critically endangered and the rate of extinction is accelerating. If habitat conversion continues unabated, key ecosystems could collapse, disrupting the biosphere upon which we all—humans and wildlife—depend.

In a paper recently published by the scientific journal BioScience, an international research team which includes CIBIO-InBIO researcher José Carlos Brito with the cooperation of CIBIO-InBIO group BIODESERTS examined a bold new approach to halting the world’s extinction crisis through a strategy to protect 50% of the Earth’s land mass.

The groundbreaking study used a new map of the world’s 846 ecoregions, improving on a 2001 version and analysis that remains one of the most widely cited papers in the field of conservation biology. The new study highlighted 98 ecoregions (12%) that already have at least half of the land areas protected for the conservation of nature. Another 313 ecoregions fall short of half-protected but had sufficient unaltered habitat remaining to protect the target.

The team called on advocates and leaders to protect half the terrestrial realm by 2050. "For the survival of chimpanzees and other wildlife around the world we need to dramatically scale up conservation efforts,” says Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace. "This paper shows how it could be possible."

An interactive ecoregion map of the world with protection status by region is available here.

A blog post calling on leaders and advocates to create a Global Deal for Nature and protect half the terrestrial realm by 2050 is available here.

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