ANNOUNCEMENTS
Planetary boundaries have been breached due to anthropogenic activities, accelerating climate change. Recognizing this threat, humanity has set targets like the Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the 30 by 30 initiative. Global conservation organisations have also set goals to contribute to these efforts. This study examines the effectiveness of these conservation goals and metrics through a mixed approach.
Firstly, general metrics such as GHG emissions, renewable water resources, renewable energy consumption, protected areas, and poverty were analysed to study trends and forecast future status. Next, a qualitative comparison of conservation targets was conducted between The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Conservation International (CI), along with a comparison of TNC's SCA 2030 metrics, CI’s metrics and IUCN's STAR metric to assess their efficiency. Finally, TNC's current progress toward its 2030 goals was examined through pace analysis and region-wise comparison to identify successful project types in different regions.
Predictive analysis indicates that GHG emissions may rise over the decade, challenging the achievement of conservation goals. Poverty and renewable water resources are declining, while protected areas and renewable energy consumption are expected to increase. TNC and CI focus on climate change mitigation, land and ocean protection, and socio-economic impacts. CI has made substantial progress, surpassing its targets in climate mitigation and impacting individuals. The metrics of CI and TNC are broad that cater to their global outlook. STAR metric involves biodiversity directly by involving Red List data set of IUCN. Unlike SCA 2030 metrics and CI’s metrics, STAR is more than a tracking metric, it also enables to visualise opportunity for restoration and threat abatement and hence is useful for both public and private organisations. TNC has set ambitious goals but the average annual progress is still below 25% of the required annual progress to meet their 2030 goals. Focusing on the Indian region separately, TNC India have significant targets to meet the People and Climate adaptation goal. However, the unit’s pace is less than 10% of required annual progress. Region-wise, Latin America, Africa, Asia- Pacific and North America are the leading contributors to climate mitigation, climate adaptation, land and ocean conservation and freshwater ecosystem management respectively. Overall, the study has revealed how the conservation metrics reflect the urgency and help in driving conservation efforts.
Keywords: Nature conservation, Conservation targets, Global conservation organisations, 2030 Goals, Conservation metrics.
