Science Mag By Erik Stokstad Feb. 2, 2021
Protect species? Curb warming? Save money? Biden’s big conservation goal means trade-offs
President Joe Biden last week unveiled an ambitious conservation goal, unprecedented for the United States: conserving 30% of the country’s lands and waters by 2030, which would require more than doubling the area of public and private holdings under heightened protections.
Conservation scientists welcomed the so-called 30-by-30 goal, announced in an executive order on climate released 27 January. “The ambition is fantastic,†says ecologist Joshua Tewksbury, interim executive director of the nonprofit Future Earth.
But Biden’s order also raises a thorny practical question: Which swaths of land and sea should be the top targets for enhanced protection or management? The order says the effort should aim for a number of outcomes, including preserving biodiversity, curbing climate change, and even creating jobs and reducing social inequality. But researchers warn that difficult trade-offs lie ahead, because few chunks of territory are likely to provide all of the desired benefits. “The balancing act [will be] the hardest part of this work,†Tewksbury says.
Reaching the 30% goal could require extending protection to vast expanses of land and sea, depending on how officials define “protected.†Only about 12% of U.S. land is already in wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national parks, and other reserves with strong protection, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Much is in Alaska; just 7.5% of the lower 48 states is highly protected. (An additional 18% of all U.S. land has weaker protection that allows certain uses, such as logging or mining.) At sea, the country is much closer to the goal: Some 26% of coastal waters is protected to some degree within sanctuaries, national marine monuments, or other entities.
More:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/protect-species-curb-warming-save-money-biden-s-big-conservation-goal-means-trade-offs
