New York, Dec. 19, 2023 — One year ago, 196 governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a historic plan to protect life on Earth that includes a set of goals and targets to ensure the conservation of biodiversity, including our planet’s wildlife and wild places.

“The Global Biodiversity Framework was the result of years of careful international negotiation and cooperation,” said Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO, Monica Medina. “The result was the most significant agreement we’ve ever seen to address nature loss on a global scale. We are now in a race against time to achieve its ambitious 30x30 target—30 percent of the planet protected by 2030.  

“As humans, we cannot survive without nature—indeed we are a part of nature. As we see increasing stresses placed on people and communities due to the climate crisis, global instability caused by the loss of vital resources like clean water and air, not to mention the threat of future pandemics, we must end the degradation of our planet and make the restoration and permanent protection of nature a priority.”

WCS is committed to working together with our partners in government, as well as Indigenous and community partners, the private sector, and others, to achieve these goals and targets at national and global scales. In particular, WCS’s work directly supports targets on conserving and restoring ecological integrity, preventing pathogen spillover, ensuring that any use of wild species is legal and sustainable, and formalizing the protection and conservation of at least 30 percent of our planet’s land, sea, and freshwater by 2030.

Additionally, as part of WCS’s efforts to advance the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the organization has partnered with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums to galvanize more than 200 institutions globally to support the 30 by 30 nature goals. 

The world has six years to achieve the targets set forth by the framework and begin the next decade nature positive, meaning that we have halted and reversed nature loss to begin to recover what we’ve lost. While the global goals are ambitious, they are attainable through collective efforts and continued collaboration.

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