Answer three questions and save half the world's biodiversity

A growing international movement called "Half Earth" calls for preserving 50 percent of the world's biodiversity. In today's Nature News and Views, conservationists James Watson of WCS and the University of Queensland and Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Columbia pose three questions that need to be answered to make this bold vision a reality. The authors say the answers should provide an effec¬tive framework for reaching Half-Earth by 2050.

WCS's goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 16 priority regions, home to more than 50 percent of the world's biodiversity.

As the authors write: "...This goal is possible in many places, and has helped to embolden this call for action. Half-Earth is about think¬ing big, and we urge conservation scientists to play their part in this process."

More information:
James E. M. Watson et al, Ecology: A global plan for nature conservation, Nature (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nature24144

Provided by Wildlife Conservation Society