For this week’s Conservation Seminar we are delighted to welcome Dr Anthony Waldron, who is currently the Lead Author on the 30 x 30 Economic Analysis project, which brings together over 100 researchers across ten disciplines to examine the economic impacts of the proposed CBD target to protect 30% of the planet for nature.
One of the keystone proposals of the post-2020 agenda for biodiversity is to expand protected areas to 30% of the planet. However, such a large increase in ambition raises concerns of reduced economic production and high public costs. To address these, over 100 economists and scientists took six scenarios of what part to protect and then projected the economic consequences across multiple affected industries (tourism, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and conservation itself). We found that overall, greater protection causes little change in global economic output and may even trigger a small increase, due to the increasing economic value of the natural world. The public costs are high, however, and would require some deep thought on how to fund more ambitious conservation in biodiversity-rich countries in the Global South. We also considered the consequences for indigenous peoples and local communities (including a non-monetary opportunity cost)
