Increasing the level of conservation from 34% to the scientific consensus of Half can be achieved in a number of ways, some better than others. WILD supports an approach that places the priority on the restoration and expansion of IPLC lands. And we can achieve this through a number of strategies, including: honoring current poorly implemented treaties and land agreements between IPLCs and states, creating new land agreements with IPLCs where none exist, restoring sacred sites to IPLCs, and creating IPLC managed corridors between neighboring ecologically intact areas.

We can supplement this strategy by creating protected areas in areas not claimed by IPLCs or only with the free, prior, and informed consent of IPLCs. As the global activist group Avaaz urges, “Nothing about IPLCs without IPLCs.” IPLC leaders must occupy new leadership positions at the forefront of the global spatial target movement. Rewilding and restoration efforts will need to occur in new protected areas and on IPLCs lands. These processes should be driven in large part by IPLC land managers.

No. Half is a global target, not a country target. While on average we need approximately Half of Earth’s surface to remain ecologically intact in order to successfully address mass extinction and the climate crisis, some ecosystems need far more than Half to avoid collapse. The Amazonian rainforest is among these, requiring approximately 80%, a threshold it is fast approaching. This is why COICA, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, have called for the protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025.

Other ecosystems, like grasslands, only require 40% intact to avoid collapse. Each country will need to develop its own scientifically-backed plan, with IPLCs playing a major role in the development of such plans, to determine what percentage of land is needed to continue to support the functioning of Earth’s biosphere for all life.

People need biodiversity. It’s that simple. Earth is a living green engine that produces, through biodiversity, all the conditions necessary for human communities to survive and thrive. Drilling down these numbers, high levels of surrounding biodiversity are one of the leading indicators for the success of small land holders. The United Nations reports that the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people (20% of Earth’s human population) depend directly on wild nature. When we conserve the land and the biodiversity that lives on it, we support life on Earth and people.

While conservation is frequently cast as the enemy of people (an accusation that is absolutely justified on a case-by-case basis), land displacement happens just as frequently (and probably more so) under other regimes, especially those of industrial agriculture and extraction. To overcome these human rights violations, conservation (and all other sectors of society) must recognize and abide by the international conventions governing the rights of IPLCs, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) chief among these.

This is why 30×30 and Half must place IPLC leaders at the forefront of decision-making, recognizing in each agreement the rights of IPLCs to the land and free, prior, and informed consent as a minimum of what is required for a just conservation sector.

While nearly everyone knows that we must keep temperature rise under 1.5 Degrees, few know or understand why we must protect Half or that we can and should do so by expanding Indigenous land tenure and rights. Knowing is half the battle which is why we are asking you to share this information with your networks and other conservation leaders.

In addition to talking about Half and building strong and supportive constituencies, we must also work more with IPLCs, and not just as partners. We need to actively listen to the recommendations and needs of IPLCs and take the necessary actions to meet their needs and manage the land accordingly.