There’s still time…if we act nowWe now face three global, interrelated environmental crises: species extinctions, climate change and the health crisis brought about by COVID19. These three crises are causing massive and unprecedented socio-economic dislocation and threatening lives and human well-being everywhere. We are running out of time to address them.

The good news is that these crises can be solved together: by protecting the planet’s remaining wilderness areas, including primary (“old growth”) forests, and by restoring degraded lands. Doing so will provide habitat for species to flourish, it will keep vast stocks of carbon safely locked up in ecosystems, while also drawing down even more carbon from the atmosphere, and it will ensure natural quarantine areas, minimizing the risk of disease transmission from wildlife.

Solving these three crises will require systemic change and it must begin with “flipping” economic incentives. Rather than subsidizing destruction of ecosystems with trillions of dollars in fuel and agriculture subsidies annually (note: burning forests as bioenergy or logging primary forests makes no sense!!) we need to fund protected areas, support community and indigenous conservation, recognize community and indigenous rights, and provide incentives for private conservation.

Wild Heritage is working to enable this change. It’s not too late. We can still opt for a safe, healthy and harmonious planet. But we must act now.