Biodiversity—the variety of all life on Earth—supports the health and wealth of our societies. But natural systems are under threat. To truly realize a future that’s durable for people and the planet, we need a swift transition to a nature-positive, carbon neutral world.
Quote: UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century.
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COP15: Your Guide to the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference
This December, the race to protect Earth's biodiversity is front and center as representatives from countries around the world gather in Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15.
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Protecting Nature Through Authentic Partnerships
Conservation for the coming decades must be based in authentic partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
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Building Better for Biodiversity—And Ourselves
Protecting nature is also vital for the health and well-being of people—and the loss of nature is not an inevitable result of human development.
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Invest in Nature, and Nature Invests in Us
How we fund and transition to a nature-positive economy at land, water and sea
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Closing the Nature Funding Gap: A Finance Plan for the Planet
We need $700 billion to reverse the global biodiversity crisis—here’s how we get it
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Biodiversity Action Guide
There’s no shortage of strategies available to create a nature-positive planet now—our downloadable guide shows how to translate ambition into action.
Partnerships
Building Momentum for Nature: Coalition Action
The Nature Now campaign supports a number of coalition efforts to raise the rallying cry for nature and climate and celebrate leadership across governments, the private sector and local communities.
Featured Content
Closing the Nature Funding Gap
In order to sufficiently fund the protection of nature, we need to know exactly how much we’re currently spending—and how much more is needed. In essence, we need to determine what our nature funding gap looks like. The Nature Conservancy, the Paulson Institute and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability took a deep look at these numbers as part of our new report, “Financing Nature: Closing the Global Biodiversity Financing Gap”.
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The Paulson Institute, TNC & the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability reveal 9 critical actions to close the nature funding gap.
DOWNLOADWe all need nature, but we are exploiting it far more rapidly than it can renew itself—and that loss comes at a price.
The food we eat, the air we breathe, our health, our climate—essentially, everything that makes Earth inhabitable—all depends on the interplay of millions of organisms in diverse ecosystems, which have learned to thrive and interact over billions of years. Biodiversity underpins planetary health and informs everything down to the taste of a grain, the strand of a cloth and a sip of water, supporting our most basic needs. Nature loss is also accelerating the climate crisis. Yet, beyond areas well-stewarded by indigenous communities, nature and wildlife are declining around the world at an unprecedented rate. To reverse this trend, we must find better ways to manage humanity's footprint on land and sea—and new ways to fund this work.
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Biodiversity: Nature by Another Name
Nature underpins every aspect of human existence—and it is in crisis
Governments and businesses now have an opportunity to take a critical, collective step to arrest this decline: to agree to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land, freshwater and ocean.
If adopted, this new framework will act as the world’s roadmap for wildlife and habitat conservation, as well as updating countries’ goals for conservation and sustainable use of living resources. The new framework should also better align with the global Sustainable Development Goals, driving home the critical role of nature in human health and well-being.
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30x30: 8 Steps to Protect the Best on Earth
To make the most of a '30 by 30' goal, here are our eight key takeaways.
It will require up to $900 billion a year to reverse the global biodiversity crisis—but we’re not spending nearly that much currently.
In fact, we need an additional $700 billion a year to protect nature, according to a new report from the Paulson Institute, TNC and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. The number sounds daunting, but the report also lays out a number of actions policymakers and businesses can take to start closing the nature funding gap.
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Closing the Nature Funding Gap: A Finance Plan for the Planet
We need $700 billion to reverse the global biodiversity crisis—here’s how we get it
To be truly transformational, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework must involve finance, planning, transportation, energy, and agriculture officials.
Biodiversity advocates must learn an important lesson from climate activists. Global climate action gained momentum only after it became clear that the issue was about more than the environment, and would require a transformation of transport, energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and many industries. The rapid loss of biodiversity that we are witnessing is about much more than nature. The collapse of ecosystems will threaten the wellbeing and livelihoods of everyone on the planet. The CBD (the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) must move beyond traditional notions of “conservation” to engage with all relevant sectors of the economy and civil society. Saving nature is not a task for government alone; it must be a whole-of-society effort.
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A Transformative Deal for Nature
A new Global Biodiversity Framework could mark a turning point in how we manage our relationship to nature.
Very little of the planet is truly "untouched." If we are to preserve the diversity of all habitats on Earth, we have to protect and manage lightly or moderately changed areas, as well as pristine landscapes.
New maps help visualize the current state of land on earth and land that is threatened with future development pressures from energy, mining and infrastructure projects around the world. These visuals show that to truly save nature, the moderately modified places—where humans have left a mark but some wild land still exists—are just as critical to conserve as the last remaining pristine areas. Can we balance this growth and meet human needs while still conserving the nature on which all life depends?
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Human Nature—Visualized
How do we balance development and conservation on a finite planet?
We urgently need to reset and reverse the path we're on—but doing so will require broad collaboration and investment. The UN biodiversity summit offers a chance to reset our relationship with nature.
Representatives from the world’s governments will convene for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal this December. It’s a pivotal moment for the countries that are party to the CBD to refresh and redouble their shared commitments to nature. These commitments must involve people who have the political and economic clout to drive transformational changes that interweave nature preservation throughout political and economic systems. Here are The Nature Conservancy’s top 10 recommendations to the CBD to create a new deal for nature.
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10 Steps to a Transformative Deal for Nature
Ahead of the crucial summit, here are The Nature Conservancy’s top 10 recommendations to the CBD to create a new deal for nature.
When nature thrives, people thrive. But even when we acknowledge this truth on a planetary scale, it’s easy to lose sight of what that means to individual communities and individual people.
Even in the face of great challenges, people and nature find ways to thrive together. These nine stories of communities around the world—from Canada to Colombia and beyond—show how local leadership can have a global impact.
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Nine Places Where People Are a Force for Nature
Local heroes across the globe remind us nature is personal, and show what leadership looks like in a world of change.
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Get More Nature Now
See our perspectives on the challenges we face and what we can do to reset our relationship with nature.
The 10-Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity
Implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework
Resources for Download
- Steps to review and update NBSAPs (National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans) (.pdf)
- Pasos para revisar y actualizar las EPANDB (Estrategias y planes de acción nacionales en materia de diversidad biológica) (.pdf)
- Schematic Figure of Targets 1, 2, and 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (.pdf)
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Resources for Download
- TNC Recommendations: Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities and '30x30' (.pdf)
- TNC Recommendations: Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities and Traditional Knowledge Policy Paper (.pdf)
- Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities and Resource Mobilization in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) (.pdf)
- Views of TNC: Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities and the Global Biodiversity Framework (.pdf)
Policy & Science Content
Download the resources below for strategies and guidance on curbing biodiversity loss and stabilizing the climate.
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30x30 Coral Reef Restoration
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This paper reviews the role of coral reef restoration in the context of climate change and global 30 by 30 targets, arguing that while restoration should not be used as a silver-bullet in the face of global declines, it has an important role to play to deliver social and ecological goals.
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Infrastructure in the GBF
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The infrastructure sector can play a critical role in jointly addressing the climate and biodiversity agendas, delivering net-zero and nature-positive outcomes.
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A Pathway for Inland Waters in the 30 x 30 Target
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Building knowledge and capacity for a radical increase in representation and effective management of inland waters in protected and conserved areas.
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Report: Financing Nature
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This report offers the most comprehensive assessment to date on how much the world currently spends to benefit nature, how much more we need to be spending, and how we can close that nature funding gap now. More information
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Infographic: Blue Bonds Explained
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The Blue Bonds for Conservation model was developed to address the challenge of governments that rely on marine natural resources, who often experience high debt burdens, further limiting their ability to invest in such activities. More information
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Infographic: Pará, Brazil's Socio-bioeconomy
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This is the first study of the current and future whole value chain of biodiversity within a State to reveal the value of non-timber forest products, social biodiversity products, and the knowledge of local people. More information
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Infographic: Building Better for Biodiversity
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Biodiversity compensation requires developers to make a simple pledge: make biodiversity retention a top priority, and when destruction is truly unavoidable, restore a similar ecosystem of at least the same size, health and ecological value to ensure 'net-gain' for nature. More information
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Infographic: Unlocking Funding to Lock Up Carbon
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Our planet faces two urgent and interconnected crises: biodiversity loss and climate change. But there is hope. By better protecting, managing and restoring natural ecosystems, we can tackle both problems at once. More information
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Infographic: Rerooting Subsidies in Nature
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Refining the way we produce food is the greatest opportunity we have to save our planet. Across the world, governments are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on harmful subsidies. More information
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Resource: Biodiversity Action Guide
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The Biodiversity Action Guide offers key strategies for increasing biodiversity conservation that are scalable—focused on protecting intact natural systems and inclusive of authentic community partnership. More information
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Resource: Playbook for Climate Action
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The Playbook for Climate Action showcases five innovative pathways for reducing emissions and climate impacts. A comprehensive suite of science-based solutions, the playbook presents actions governments and companies can deploy—and scale—today. More information
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Inland Water Ecosystem Briefing
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Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Support and a Pathway for Inland Water Ecosystems in the ‘30 by 30’ Target, Monitoring Framework and Implementation More information
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Policy, Finance, and Business Resources
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TNC's Conservation Finance Recommendations
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Funding Nature, Slowing Climate Change, Securing our Future. More information
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Nature-Related Conversation in 2020-2021
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This new social media analysis from Onalytica and TNC reveals how public understanding remains low on the importance of nature to human health and economic stability. More information
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Building on Nature
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This book outlines how area-based conservation can be a key tool for delivering SDGs.
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Setting Robust Biodiversity Goals
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The new global biodiversity framework (GBF) being developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity must drive action to reverse the ongoing decline of the Earth's biodiversity. Explicit, measurable goals that specify the outcomes we want to achieve are needed to set the course for this action. Read more on Conservation Letters
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A Nature-Positive World: Global Goal for Nature
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No succinct goal exists for nature and the global agreements that address various dimensions of biodiversity. This paper lays out an argument for the adoption of a succinct Nature-Positive Global Goal for Nature. More information on Nature Positive
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Infographic: Global Goal for Nature
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This decade must be the turning point where we recognize the value of nature, place it on the path to recovery and transform our world to one where people, economies and nature thrive. More information on Nature Positive
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NGO Coalition Statement: Public Development Banks
TNC has joined efforts with other leading conservation organizations to identify three key opportunities for Public Development Banks to drive systemic change that addresses the biodiversity challenge. More information
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COVID-19 Response and Recovery
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A joint NGO policy paper outlining recommendations for COVID-19 Response and Recovery through nature-based solutions
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Economic Recovery Guiding Principles
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The Nature Conservancy's guidance on an economic recovery to advance the health and well-being of people and the planet.
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Nature-Positive Recovery
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A nature-positive recovery for people, economy and climate includes principles for investing in nature-based jobs and initiatives to stimulate the post-COVID economy. Visit Nature4Climate's site
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Businesses Call for Policy Action
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TNC supports the Business for Nature coalition in accelerating policies to curb biodiversity loss. Download to read their statement. Visit Business for Nature
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Infographics: Human Nature—Visualized
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Download three infographics showing the current extent of land change on Earth, what future changes might look like, and what is driving these changes. More information
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Global Insights
Check out our latest thinking and real-world solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing people and the planet today.