The research, led by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and Conservation International, sheds light on the critical role of effective governance and supports the United Nations’ “30 by 30” initiative.

The findings also emphasize the need for a multifaceted approach to conservation that goes beyond protected areas alone.

Conservation and protected lands

Human activities have dramatically escalated the natural extinction rate of vertebrates, increasing it by 22 times. This rapid loss of biodiversity destabilizes food webs and endangers essential ecological services such as crop pollination, healthy diets, and disease control.

“Humans are inextricably dependent on biodiversity for survival,” says Justin Nowakowski, SERC conservation biologist and lead author of the study. “It provides food, fuel, fiber and other ecosystem services that we depend on for life.”

How the study was conducted

The study involved meticulous data collection for over 1,000 species from every continent, excluding Antarctica, leveraging data from the Living Planet and BioTIME databases.

Nowakowski’s team studied 2,239 vertebrate populations, comparing the states of species within and outside protected areas. The research revealed that vertebrates inside protected areas are declining at a rate of 0.4% per year, nearly five times more slowly than those in unprotected areas (1.8% per year).

The significance of protected lands

Protected areas offer a refuge where biodiversity is closer to stability. “They buy us much-needed time to figure out how to reverse the biodiversity crisis,” stated Luke Frishkoff, coauthor and assistant professor of biology at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Frishkoff further noted that populations outside protected areas could halve in 40 years, while those inside would take 170 years to face a similar fate.

Impact on different species

The study found that certain vertebrate classes, notably amphibians and birds, benefitted more within protected lands. This is likely due to the severe threats they face outside, including habitat loss, climate change, and diseases like the chytrid fungus affecting amphibians.

“Amphibians typically have fairly small home ranges, and they’re also really sensitive to small changes in the environment,” said Jessica Deichmann, coauthor and ecologist with the Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation.

Challenges and external factors

However, the conversion of nearby land for agriculture and development along with climate change continue to undermine the efficacy of protected areas. The research team made sure to highlight the urgent need for interconnected protected zones and adaptive strategies that align with the ecological fluidity, as species are constantly moving.

The findings also reaffirm the UN’s commitment made last December, where nearly 200 nations pledged to protect 30% of Earth’s land and water by 2030. This ambitious roadmap is called the “30 by 30” initiative.

While this commitment has fueled a surge in establishing protected lands, the study cautions against mere compliance through ‘paper parks’ and emphasizes actual biodiversity conservation within these regions.

In addition, effective governance emerged as a crucial factor in successful conservation efforts. Nations with transparent and corruption-free governments are often more efficient in enforcing environmental laws, managing conservation funds and involving local communities in conservation laws.

Beyond protected lands

Conservation experts are advocating for diverse strategies to conserve biodiversity. Examples include “payment for ecosystem services” programs, such as the one in Costa Rica, which incentivizes landowners to preserve forests. These innovative models, along with biological corridors and Indigenous-led protected areas, offer flexible and effective alternatives to traditional conservation approaches.

In summary, the study by SERC and Conservation International illustrates the pivotal role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation, but also emphasizes the necessity for comprehensive strategies that encompass effective governance, community involvement, and innovative conservation models.

By adopting such holistic approaches, humanity can hope to curb the ongoing biodiversity crisis and ensure the survival and thriving of myriad species on Earth.

The full study was published in the journal Nature.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2023 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA received record demand for funding to advance affordable and reliable clean energy in rural America under key programs made possible by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest clean energy and climate investment in history and the largest investment ever in rural energy infrastructure. Part of Bidenomics and the President’s Investing in America agenda, these programs will lower energy costs for consumers and small businesses and create good-paying jobs across rural America.

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act is driving investment in rural communities across the nation, particularly in places that for too long have been left out or left behind,” Vilsack said. “Our programs are a major opportunity to build a clean energy economy in rural America that will lower energy costs, strengthen energy security, create good-paying jobs, and meet our climate goals. The response from rural America and rural electric cooperatives to these programs is a resounding ‘yes’ to federal funding for clean energy infrastructure to provide relief to farmers, rural small businesses and individuals by lowering energy costs and creating economic opportunity for generations to come.”

The Inflation Reduction Act made nearly $13 billion available to support clean energy infrastructure for rural America through USDA Rural Development programs. The funding will help eligible entities build renewable energy and zero-emission systems and make energy-efficiency improvements that will significantly increase affordability and reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Department has seen record-breaking demand from across the nation for the following programs:

Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program

In May, USDA made $9.7 billion available under the New ERA program for member-owned rural electric cooperatives to help rural Americans benefit from clean, affordable and reliable energy. Rural electric cooperatives are the backbone of America’s power delivery, and this funding represents the largest increase in investment in rural America’s electric system since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.

On Sept. 15, the window closed for letters of interest. USDA received 157 proposals from nearly every state and Puerto Rico for more than 750 high-quality clean energy projects in rural communities. The overwhelming response from rural electric cooperatives totaled more than two times the $9.7 billion in grant and loan funding that Congress made available for this program. These 157 proposals from rural electric cooperatives seek to:

• Serve the most in need and provide relief to rural Americans: More than 50% of letters of interest submitted indicate they will serve distressed, disadvantaged, energy or Tribal communities. If selected for funding, one applicant said it expects its proposed clean energy investments to save each household in its service area $700 per year.
• Create new investment in rural communities: The level of all submitted proposals, including leveraged private investment represents approximately $93 billion in public and private investments in rural America.
• Invest in cleaner air and a more stable climate: Taken together, the submitted proposals total 127 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions that could be reduced and avoided. This is equivalent to 24 million homes’ electricity use in one year, or 2 billion trees grown for 10 years, or removing nearly 24 million cars from the road for a year.

Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) Program

In May, USDA made $1 billion available under PACE to fund new clean energy projects and energy storage in rural America.

So far, USDA has received requests for more than $7.8 billion through letters of interest. The Department expects to receive more letters of interest as it approaches the Sept. 29 deadline.

Rural Energy for America Program (REAP)

In Fiscal Year 2022, USDA received $75 million in applications under REAP to help agricultural operations and rural small business owners build clean energy systems and make energy efficient improvements.

In Fiscal Year 2023, with funding bolstered by the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA has received requests for nearly $900 million in funding.

Conservation Programs

On Sept. 19, USDA announced that it has also seen substantially more interest than funding available under the Inflation Reduction Act in USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) programs to help farmers and ranchers implement expanded conservation practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon storage.

Background

The Inflation Reduction Act is a key part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda and is the nation’s largest-ever investment to combat climate change. USDA Rural Development is moving quickly to give farmers and rural communities relief through clean energy investments that will lower energy bills for families and businesses and reduce pollution.

These investments made through the Inflation Reduction Act are powering the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to make USDA programs more inclusive, accessible and available to more people than ever before so that these benefits are felt for generations to come. Many of these programs are also part of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which is advancing environmental justice by ensuring that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment.

USDA will release more information as it processes letters of interest and applications.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

The multilateral lender - set up as an alternative to the World Bank in 2016 - aims to increase allocation for climate-related funding to at least US$7 billion annually by 2030, roughly a three-fold increase from last year's US$2.6 billion.

Cumulatively, the AIIB says it will advance US$50 billion for climate change mitigation and adaptation by the end of this decade, mobilising capital to support its members' efforts to fight the consequences of global warming.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

The Climate Action Plan (CAP) was released on the sidelines of the bank's board of governors' meeting in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday - its first in-person annual gathering since 2019.

AIIB president Jin Liqun said the plan "outlines our ambition to bring capital, capacity and convening power to help our members in their efforts to address climate change", adding that it "builds on what is already a significant area of focus for our bank".

According to Jin, the CAP will build on the AIIB's 2020 pledge to stop bankrolling coal-powered projects and instead ramp up its investments in environmentally friendly schemes.

The referendum will give voters the chance to decide whether oil companies can continue to drill in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, the Yasuní National Park, home to the last uncontacted indigenous communities in Ecuador.

The park encompasses around one million hectares at the meeting point of the Amazon, the Andes and the Equator. Just one hectare of Yasuní land supposedly contains more animal species than the whole of Europe and more tree species than exist in all of North America.

But underneath the land lies Ecuador’s largest reserve of crude oil.

“We are leading the world in tackling climate change by bypassing politicians and democratizing environmental decisions,” said Pedro Bermo, the spokesman for Yasunidos, an environmental collective who pushed for the referendum.

It’s been a decade-long battle that began when former President Rafael Correa boldly proposed that the international community give Ecuador $3.6 billion to leave Yasuní undisturbed. But the world wasn’t as generous as Correa expected. In 2016, the Ecuadorian state oil company began drilling in Block 43 – around 0.01% of the National Park – which today produces more than 55,000 barrels a day, amounting to around 12% of Ecuador’s oil production.

A continuous crusade of relentless campaigning and a successful petition eventually made its mark – in May, the country’s constitutional court authorized the vote to be included on the ballot of the upcoming election.

It’s a decision that will likely be instrumental to the future of Ecuador’s economy. Supporters who want to continue drilling believe the loss of employment opportunities would be disastrous.

“The backers of the request for crude to remain underground made it ten years ago when there wasn’t anything. 10 years later we find ourselves with 55,000 barrels per day, that’s 20 million barrels per year,” Energy Minister Fernando Santos told local radio.

“At $60 a barrel that’s $1.2 billion,” he added. “It could cause huge damage to the country,” he said, referring to economic damage and denying there has been environmental harm.

Alberto Acosta-Burneo, an economist and editor of the Weekly Analysis bulletin, said Ecuador would be “shooting itself in the foot” if it shut down drilling. In a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said that without cutting consumption all it would mean is another country selling Ecuador fuel.

“This election has two faces,” explained Bermo.

“On one hand we have the violence, the candidates, parties, and the same political mafias that governed Ecuador without significant changes.

“On the other hand, the referendum is the contrary – a citizen campaign full of hope, joy, art, activism and a lot of collective work to save this place. We are very optimistic.”

Among those campaigning to stop the drilling is Helena Gualinga, an indigenous rights advocate who hails from a remote village in the Ecuadorian Amazon – home of the Kichwa Sarayaku community.

ditor of the Weekly Analysis bulletin, said Ecuador would be “shooting itself in the foot” if it shut down drilling. In a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said that without cutting consumption all it would mean is another country selling Ecuador fuel.

But ‘yes’ campaigners have ideas to fill the gap, from the promotion of eco-tourism and the electrification of public transport to eliminating tax exemptions. They claim that cutting the subsidies to the richest 10% of the country would generate four times more than what is obtained extracting oil from Yasuní.

“This referendum presents a huge opportunity for us to create change in a tangible way,” she told CNN.

For Gualinga, the most crucial part of the referendum is that if Yasunidos wins, the state oil company will have a one-year deadline to wrap up its operations in Block 43.

She explained that some oil companies have left areas in the Amazon without properly shutting down operations and restoring the area.

“This sentence would mean they have to do that.”

Those who wish to continue drilling in the area argue that meeting the one-year deadline to dismantle operations would be impossible.

The referendum comes as the world faces blistering temperatures, with scientists declaring July as the hottest month on record, and the Amazon approaching what studies are suggesting is a critical tipping point that could have severe implications in the fight to tackle climate change.

And according to Antonia Juhasz, a Senior Researcher on Fossil Fuels at Human Rights Watch, it’s time for Ecuador to transition to a post-oil era. Ecuador’s GDP from oil has dropped significantly from around 18% in 2008, to just over 6% in 2021.

She believes the benefits of protecting the Amazon outweigh the benefits of maintaining dependence on oil, particularly considering the cost of regular oil spills and the consequences of worsening the climate crisis.

“The Amazon is worth more intact than in pieces, as are its people,” she said.

The bill received cross-party support and was celebrated by politicians across India’s often fractious political spectrum but some expressed reservations that it could still take years for the quota to be implemented.

A total of 214 lawmakers from the upper house voted in favor of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which was introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi’s government in a special parliamentary session on Tuesday. It was approved by the lower house on Wednesday.

“A historic moment in our country’s democratic journey!” Modi wrote on Twitter after its approval. “With the passing of this bill, the representation of women power will be strengthened and a new era of their empowerment will begin.”

Six attempts to pass the bill, first introduced in 1996, have failed, at times due to strong disapproval from the country’s overwhelmingly male lawmakers.

In India, the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, women make up nearly half of the country’s 950 million registered voters but only 15% of lawmakers in parliament and 10% in state assemblies.

Despite being voted through, the move will not apply to next year’s general election.

The implementation of the quota could take years as it depends on the redrawing of electoral constituencies, which will only happen after the completion of India’s once-in-a-decade census.

That huge census project was meant to take place in 2021, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has been stalled ever since.

Some members of India’s opposition expressed disappointment that the bill won’t come into effect sooner.

Sonia Gandhi, a leader of the Indian National Congress, said women have been waiting for 13 years for the bill to go through.

“Now they have been asked to wait longer,” she told lawmakers in parliament. “How many years more?”

Rajani Patil, another Congress lawmaker, said that while the party was “very happy” at its passage, their demand is that the bill should be “implemented immediately” for the general elections.

She added: “It should include OBC reservations as well,” referring to India’s caste system, a 2,000 year old social hierarchy imposed on people by birth. Though abolished in 1950, it still exists in many aspects of life.

Nonetheless, the bill’s passage in parliament will be seen as a further boost to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of national elections next year.

While India has made progress on women’s issues in recent years, it remains a deeply patriarchal country.

It has, since its independence in 1947, had one female prime minister. India Gandhi served as the country’s leader twice before her assassination in 1984.

India’s current President, Droupadi Murmu, who was appointed to the position last year became only the second woman to take the seat.

Across the world, the overall share of lower house parliamentary seats occupied by women is about 26 percent according to UN Women’s data, up from 11 per cent in 1995.

Only six nations have currently achieved 50 per cent or more women in parliament in single or lower houses. Rwanda leads with 61 per cent, followed by Cuba (53 per cent), Nicaragua (52 per cent), Mexico (50 per cent), New Zealand (50 per cent), and the United Arab Emirates (50 per cent).

A further 23 countries have reached or surpassed 40 per cent, including 13 countries in Europe, six in Africa, three in Latin America and the Caribbean, and one in Asia – Timor Leste.

However Taiwan, which is not counted in the UN data, has the second highest representation of women in its legislature in Asia after the UAE at 43 percent.

As countries in the Persian Gulf feud over lucrative petroleum reservoirs that will increase greenhouse gas emissions, wildfires have ravaged Algeria and Tunisia.

Nonetheless, bright spots have emerged in a few of the more news-averse corners of the Middle East. Oman, a sultanate with a strong record on environmental protection, is redoubling its commitment to renewable energy and innovation.

"The smart city will incorporate solar power and water recycling as well as electric vehicles and waste-to-energy plants"

CNN reported on August 17 that the sultanate intends to establish an eco-friendly smart city near the Omani capital of Muscat under the name “Sultan Haitham City.” The CNN article cited a plan drawn up by the American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, also known as “SOM.” According to the SOM document, Sultan Haitham City will house 100,000 people in 20,000 homes spread over 19 neighbourhoods and 14.8 square kilometres.

The SOM plan places at the forefront many of the features that will integrate Sultan Haitham City into Oman’s wider campaign to transition to renewable energy.

The smart city will incorporate solar power and water recycling as well as electric vehicles and waste-to-energy plants. A SOM executive also told CNN that Sultan Haitham City will employ technology to “monitor environmental factors such as air quality and water management,” a key component of the architectural firm’s ambitious blueprint for a project with a minimal “ecological footprint.”

Much about Sultan Haitham City remains up in the air or will require years to put into action. SOM’s plan indicates that the initial stage of development will take until the end of the decade, with the completion of the project set for 2045.

At the same time, SOM offered little detail on the percentage of the smart city’s energy consumption covered by renewable resources. The architectural firm only made a passing reference to Oman’s wider goal of meeting 30 percent of its needs with renewable energy by 2030, well before Sultan Haitham City reaches full capacity.

The extended timeline and vague metrics leave Oman well behind its neighbors. Saudi Arabia announced plans for its better-known smart city, Neom, six years ago. The $500 billion Saudi project will derive all its electricity from renewable energy, will host 9 million people, and hoped to wrap up its first phase by 2025—though it has since run into delays.

The United Arab Emirates has trumpeted its well-received efforts to convert Abu Dhabi and Dubai into smart cities with projects such as Masdar City, which the country calls “the first attempt in the Middle East to build a sustainable city.”

This year, the International Institute for Management Development gave Abu Dhabi the highest ranking of any city in the Middle East and North Africa in its annual “Smart City Index” report. Except for Dubai, no other city in the region reached the top 20. Muscat ranked 96th, compared to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at 30th.

This disparity derives from a simple economic reality: Oman has fewer petroleum reservoirs than Saudi Arabia and the UAE, meaning less money, and will exhaust its supply sooner. Oman produced 1.064 million barrels of oil a day in 2022, versus 4.02 million for the UAE and 12.136 million for Saudi Arabia, according to a report released earlier this year by the Energy Institute.

With less oil to pump, Oman’s attempt to escape the resource curse becomes that much more urgent. Sultan Haitham City falls under the umbrella of Oman Vision 2040, a development plan mapping the sultanate’s ambition to move away from its reliance on the petroleum industry and plot a future rooted in economic diversity and sustainability.

A “vision document” outlining the development plan notes, “The future strategy in natural resource management will focus on developing nontraditional sources of natural resources, such as the use of renewable energy to reduce production cost and subsequently enhance the competitiveness of economic sectors.”

The Oman Vision 2040 document emphasizes the importance of bracing urban areas for “climate change effects,” an issue that Omani officials have put front and centre. In July, Oman’s foreign minister stressed the requirement for “more action” on climate change during a visit to Italy, lamenting, “But still the world is moving far too slowly.”

SOM factored the side effects of climate change into its plan. The design of Sultan Haitham City prioritizes materials that create shade and encourage ventilation, crucial in a country where temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius this summer. The smart city will also feature a dry river to absorb floods, which have grown more common in recent decades.

Oman has found a capable partner in SOM, whose August 22 press release called Sultan Haitham City “a new model for sustainable development.” The architectural firm designed Dubai’s best-known tourist attraction, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

Though Sultan Haitham City seems unlikely to achieve a similar level of fame, the smart city showcases to the world Oman’s commitment to sustainable development—or it will, in 2045.

The tool, shared first with The Verge, uses satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites. But those images still give a pretty blurry view of the ground. The fix? A feature called “Super-Resolution.” Basically, it uses deep learning models to fill in details, like what buildings might look like, to generate high-resolution images.

For now, Satlas focuses on renewable energy projects and tree cover around the world. The data is updated monthly and includes parts of the planet monitored by Sentinel-2. That includes most of the world except parts of Antarctica and open oceans far from land.

 “We are off to a good start. We now call for further pledges from countries and from other sources so that the first projects under the new fund can be launched next year,” said David Cooper, acting executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Representatives from 185 countries were present at the meeting. The fund is set up within the Global Environment Facility (GEF) — a mechanism established under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The fund's creation comes after more than 190 countries signed a pact at the Montreal COP15 summit in December 2022 to protect nature and reverse decades of environmental damage which threatens biodiversity.

That pact's objective was to raise US$ 30 billion annually in conservation aid for developing countries, securing 30% of the planet as a protected zone and bringing an end to extinction of threatened species caused by human activity.

The GBFF will allocate 20% of its collection towards indigenous-led initiatives to conserve biodiversity. It will also prioritize island states which are most vulnerable and among the world's least developed nations.

The United Nations called for contributions to help meet its US$ 30 billion goal for the year.

Speaking of the GBFF, campaign group Avaaz said the US$ 160 million raised was not enough startup money and that another US$40 million was required to make the fund operational by the end of 2023.

It urged governments, including that of Japan and the United States to “put money on the table.”

“The time for half-measures has passed,” Avaaz director Oscar Soria said. “Surely donors can come up with the paltry US$ 40 million” needed to get the fund up and running.