Much of the world favours protecting 30% of the world’s land and water for nature by 2030, according to new research that has found overwhelming public support for the goal across eight countries on five continents.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in 2022 to set aside 30% of the world’s land and 30% of marine areas for nature. But just 17.6% of the world’s land and 8.6% of the seas are now under global protection, and more than 100 nations are less than halfway to meeting the target, which was established under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Governments will need to implement swift changes if they are to achieve the target within the next five years. But setting aside more space for nature can be a political pitfall. Often it can mean restricting people’s access to land, halting resource extraction and relocating human settlements. These issues, along with possible effects on economic growth, are often cited by countries as barriers to expanding protecting areas.
Research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, suggests that more than 80% of the public across eight sampled countries support the policy.
Aksel Sundström, a political scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and a co-author of the study, said: “There has been a sentiment among policymakers that they are not sure if people are actually interested in having this massive expansion. But I think from these data points, we can say that public opinion does not seem to be a big hurdle in terms of making this expansion possible or viable.”
In their survey of 12,000 people from eight countries – Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United States – Sundström and his colleagues found high levels of support at the domestic level.
Argentinian and Brazilian respondents were the most supportive of their governments expanding protected areas – at 87.9% and 90% respectively. Swedish and US respondents were slightly less in agreement, at 66.3% and 71.2% respectively. Public support across all eight countries averaged 82.4%.
Researchers chose the eight countries to reflect the views of both the global north and south, as well as to reflect varying levels of protected areas. Survey respondents were representative of their country’s demographic make-up.
Although only eight nations were surveyed, “given how consistent many of these patterns are, it seems plausible that people in similar countries should have similar preferences”, said a co-author, Patrik Michaelsen, also at University of Gothenburg.
Researchers found that people were more supportive of the target when the responsibility to protect nature was divided equally among countries and governments were not allowed to pay their way out of domestic protection or pay to protect areas in other countries rather than invest in conservation at home.
There was also a strong consensus that richer countries should shoulder most of the costs to achieve the target.
For those working to build more political support for the 30×30 target, the results of the new survey were heartening.
Susan Lieberman, vice-president of international policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said: “[We] work in five of the eight countries studied, and we are encouraged by the results. We believe that on this and other issues, citizens across the globe want their governments to take strong action to protect biodiversity and conserve nature.”
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