Mapping the planet’s critical natural assets for people

Background/Question/Methods

Human actions are rapidly transforming the planet, driving losses of nature at an unprecedented rate that negatively impacts societies and economies. Recognizing the accelerating severity of the environmental crisis, in 2015 the global community committed to Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2022, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity will adopt new targets for conserving, restoring and sustainably managing multiple dimensions of biodiversity, including Nature's Contributions to People (NCP). Collectively, these three policy frameworks will shape the sustainable development agenda for the next decade. All three depend heavily on safeguarding natural assets, the living components of our lands and waters. Despite the urgency of safeguarding natural assets, we still have limited understanding of the spatial extent of the critical benefits that these ecosystems provide to humanity. Here we globally map and analyze a broad set of NCP, including 12 benefitting people more locally (nitrogen retention, sediment retention, crop pollination, fodder production for livestock, timber production, fuelwood production, flood regulation, riverine fish catch, marine fish catch, coastal risk reduction, coral reef tourism, and access to nature), and two benefitting people globally (ecosystem carbon storage and atmospheric moisture recycling).

Results/Conclusions

Using spatial optimization, we identify critical natural assets, the most important ecosystems for providing NCP, comprising 30% (for local benefits) to 44% (for local and global benefits) of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters. At least 87% of the global population, nearly 6.4 billion people, benefit directly from at least one of the local NCP provided by critical natural assets, while only 16% live on the lands providing these benefits, suggesting the potential for compensation to incentivize sustainable use of these lands and waters. Over 80% of critical natural assets for the 12 local NCP are also critical for the two global NCP, and these critical areas for people also represent the area needed to sustain 60% of terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity and contain 96% of human languages (as a proxy for cultural diversity). Many of these NCP are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet our analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets jointly advances development, climate, and conservation goals. Crafting policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for sustaining human well-being and securing Earth’s life support systems.