Page 177 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

"We have the tools, and increasingly the science, to address this issue," Jetz said. "We can take species into account, and we can include them in our planning and decision-making." The spatial dimension unlocks patterns of a species richness and rarity, including how their traits function across geography, how they relate to the history of an area, and where they are native and live in large numbers. Determining the optimal area to preserve entails looking at hundreds and thousands of species in a region to identify priority places and think efficiently about safeguarding a maximum number of species in the least amount of area. Taking Action to Make Progress The simplicity of the Half-Earth concept has helped it gain momentum, with core innovation in how to best care for our planet being guided by rigorous science. Both sides— conservation and quantification—have increasing urgency if we're going to preserve biodiversity for future generations. "The guiding mission of the Half-Earth Project is to leave no species knowingly behind," Jetz said. "Extinctions will continue, but we shouldn't be losing species unknowingly. We have a moral obligation, at a minimum, to be aware when we drive a species to extinction and to know how to safeguard every species." The project has created maps that weigh the importance of places, including metrics on human encroachment, existing conservation protections, and details about the species. "It's not simply the hot spots of richness that we need to conserve, but the right optimally designed network," Jetz said. "In the Half-Earth Project science, we use the species distribution information to give each location a globally informed, quantitative priority score. It's a dynamic map that changes as our knowledge progresses and our conservation progresses." The green sea turtle paddles near tropical coral reefs. 176 Biodiversity