Getting to 30x30: How the most aggressive conservation goals in U.S. history are combating climate and biodiversity loss.
Scientists from around the world agree that we must protect at least 30% of global lands, fresh waters and oceans by 2030 to have any chance of stemming the dual crises of biodiversity loss and climate change facing our planet. When you think about conservation, do you think about it as a life-or-death issue? If not, here’s something to consider: Protecting lands, waters, and oceans is urgently needed to stop and reverse rampant species extinction and the staggering loss of global biodiversity in recent decades, and to secure the well-being of humanity itself by conserving areas that are the primary source of drinking water for the world’s largest cities and are central to ensuring global food security.
As of a year ago, nearly 16% of global land and inland waters have been protected, as have 8% of marine areas. At this level, we are on track to lose half of all global species by the end of the century. This loss has sweeping consequences for livelihoods, economic growth, medicine, food systems and climate resilience. To put a price on it, the world lost $4–20 trillion per year from 1997 to 2011 because of changes in how humans use land. The current amount of global protection is insufficient, and it underscores how important it is to push for more conserved lands and waters, now.
How do we get there?
190 countries have adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (also known as The Biodiversity Plan) - representing a significant global commitment to better protect the planet. The GBF establishes 23 action-oriented global targets for focused and quick action as we approach 2030, including the 30x30 target which has become perhaps the most famous in the framework. It’s worth noting that despite having helped draft the Global Biodiversity Framework, the US is not an official member of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) but has committed to the 30x30 target along with 120 countries.
The U.S. commitment to 30x30 (known as the America The Beautiful Initiative) was announced as part of President Biden’s Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. In a 2021 Climate One podcast with Paula Ehrlich, CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and cofounder of the Half-Earth Project, Paula discusses how Half-Earth is seen as the inspiration for interim goals like setting aside 30% of land and seas for biodiversity by 2030. While 30x30 might be characterized as “interim,” hinting at a 50x50 goal ahead, we still have a long way to go to meet this important milestone by the end of the decade. According to the 2022 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP), lands protected for biodiversity in Colorado, for example, only amount to 6.6 million acres, or 9.99% of the state. In California, 23.8 million acres are protected for biodiversity, or 22.76% of the state.
Here’s the good news
We are making progress, however. In 2023 we celebrated restored protections to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah and the designation of five new national monuments, including Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. And late last month, President Biden expanded two national monuments in California following calls from tribal nations, Indigenous community leaders and others for the permanent protection of nearly 120,000 acres of important cultural and environmental land. In Southern California, the President expanded the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, driven by calls from the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrieleno San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. Both are the original stewards of the culturally rich and diverse lands. The President also expanded Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Northern California, to include Molok Luyuk, or Condor Ridge, a landscape that has deep cultural significance.
At the 2024 Grassroots Friends Summit in Salt Lake City, we heard directly from tribes and local community-led conservation groups that are calling on the Biden administration to designate a new Chuckwalla National Monument, a Dolores Canyons National Monument, a new Kw’tsán National Monument, and to protect and name Sáttítla, known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, as a national monument. If President Biden designates these monuments this year, it will add more than one million acres of public land toward the 30x30 goal.
Looking beyond federal action
Getting to 30x30 doesn’t just rely on Presidential authority to designate National Monuments under the Antiquities Act. America the Beautiful relies on voluntary efforts to conserve and restore land, encourages the creation of new local parks and community forests, and pushes for more research into areas that have high levels of biodiversity. It also expands the definition of “protected areas” to include sustainably managed farms, ranches and areas for hunting. Last month, the Biden administration launched conservation.gov, a beta version of the “American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas” which tracks the conservation status of public, state and private lands across the U.S. The Atlas, when complete, will be an important resource for federal, state and local governments, communities, and advocacy groups that are working to ensure we meet the America the Beautiful goal.
The Atlas shows some positive outcomes from Biden’s initiative so far, including successfully conserving one-third of U.S. oceans and conserving more than 41 million acres of land and water in the past three years. It also reminds us that we have not made enough progress protecting freshwater resources, a central focus of 30x30, but often overlooked, in my view. Worldwide, the vast majority of freshwater ecosystems are totally unprotected. Only about 10-20% of freshwater habitats are located within protected areas, a small fraction of protected land and ocean areas. Protecting a wide array of productive freshwater habitats must be a critical part of this initiative. In response, the Biden Administration's new national goals to reconnect, restore, and protect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of rivers and streams as part of America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge are an important call to action. It’s not enough to hope that protecting 30% of lands will result in the level of protection that freshwater areas require.
Consistent with the 30x30 initiative, the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge calls on states, Tribes, cities and local communities and organizations to advance their own policies and strategies for conserving and restoring freshwater systems. Mighty Arrow, along with many of our Mighty Partners, are signed onto the challenge and we are committed to advancing protections for forest and tidal wetlands, sources of drinking water, and maintaining healthy waterways.
*As of the date of publication, the USGS Gap Analysis Project has not included these additional acres in its assessment of protected landscapes.
