Tiny, remote islands make huge waves for marine conservation

For centuries, development has come at the expense of nature.

What if nature and people could thrive in the same place, forever? What if communities could improve their livelihoods and food security and become more resilient to climate change without further damaging biodiversity and nature’s life-support systems?

Conservation International aims to link sustainable production and nature conservation in the world’s most critical ecosystems. We work with communities and corporations to design and implement sustainable development initiatives that conserve and restore nature — what we call “nature-positive” economies.

What are nature-positive economies?

Nature-positive economies are good for people, climate and nature. They help conserve and restore the many benefits that ecosystems provide, while enabling sustainable development for local communities. Efforts to support nature-positive economies can range from helping communities maintain their traditional livelihoods by promoting sustainable agriculture practices, to investing in the development of local, nature-based enterprises and improving market access for their products. Nature-positive economies also require ambitious sustainability commitments from companies that source raw materials from these landscapes.

The facts

In 2022, 196 countries signed onto the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by conserving 30 percent of Earth’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and promotes sustainable management of agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry.

In addition, in 2015, 193 countries signed onto the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty, fight inequality, prevent environmental degradation, improve public health and tackle climate change by 2030.

One essential element underlies these ambitious global targets: nature. Achieving them will require more ambitious actions from businesses, governments and communities working together in the right ways and in the right places to protect nature and help deliver sustainable development for all.

Planetary goals

Where humanity needs to be by 2030

We must adopt sustainable, nature-based and climate-resilient production systems that support the Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals in some of the world’s most ecologically important places by 2030.

Here’s what we are doing

Conservation International supports the transition to nature-positive economies in the world’s most important places for nature by:

Supporting Indigenous peoples and local communities in their efforts to conserve their lands and maintain their livelihoods.
Supporting communities and local entrepreneurs in developing sustainable enterprises that maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services in the landscape.
Working with the private sector to understand its impacts on nature and advance efforts to protect, more sustainably manage and conserve globally-important places.
Developing innovative ways to combine government, corporate, donor and investor funding to help large-scale areas transition to nature-positive economic development models.

Protect Nature Now

By 2025, Conservation International aims to:

Siti Normah holds up a medicinal root collected in a nearby forest.

Transition 30 million hectares to regenerative agricultural systems that link economic production and ecosystem protection for the benefit of rural communities.

Work with communities and governments to conserve an additional 10 million hectares of intact tropical forests, grasslands and rangelands in globally important landscapes threatened by production.

On the ground

Conservation International is working around the world

Bogotá, Colombia

The capital city of Colombia draws its water from the largest intact high Andean grasslands in the world. But the area, known as the Páramos Conservation Corridor, is at risk from intensive cattle grazing and cultivation, a rapid increase in urban growth rates and climate change. This threatens the ecosystem’s capacity to deliver fresh water to Bogotá and its surrounding municipalities — about 8 million people.

In 2006, Conservation International, in partnership with the Colombian government, started the country’s first climate change adaptation project. Currently, we are implementing climate change adaptation projects around Bogotá to protect its water supply. Over the past decade, much of the sensitive high grasslands have come under protective management. The loss of the critical forests connecting these spongelike areas to urban populations has practically ceased, and local communities have benefited from thriving community agriculture.

Southern Africa

Conservation International is working with communal livestock farmers in high-biodiversity rural areas of Southern Africa to help degraded rangelands recover and become more resilient to climate change, while improving cattle health and providing access to new markets for farmers. The Herding 4 Health program, an ambitious partnership between Conservation International, Meat Naturally Pty and the Peace Parks Foundation, is expanding this work to cover more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of rangeland under improved management across at least five countries in the region.

Herding 4 Health uses a community-driven approach to address challenges faced by farmers living in and adjacent to protected areas. In Southern Africa, the integrated program will incorporate lessons learned from the demonstration sites in South Africa, while also focusing on human-wildlife conflict and novel approaches to animal disease control, market access and support for developing enterprises in partnership with local implementing partners.

Related conservation news from the field

Tiny, remote islands make huge waves for marine conservation

Nov 25, 2020, 17:31 PM by Kiley Price

The government of Tristan da Cunha — the most remote inhabited islands in the world — committed to protecting 90 percent of its territory’s waters, creating the largest marine protected area in the Atlantic.

A small island community in the middle of the South Atlantic just made a big splash for the health of the world’s oceans.

The government of Tristan da Cunha — an archipelago 4,000 square kilometers (1,600 miles) west of South Africa and the most remote inhabited islands in the world — committed to protecting 90 percent of its territory’s waters, creating the largest marine protected area in the Atlantic.

Roughly twice the size of the Great Barrier Reef, this protected area hosts an array of marine life, including seals, sharks and whales. The islands are home to one of the most important seabird breeding grounds on the planet, with populations numbering in the tens of millions.

“Protecting the waters around Tristan da Cunha is not only about conserving biodiversity, it is about honoring the seafaring history of this community and their commitment to securing healthy and economically stable future for generations to come,” said ‘Aulani Wilhelm, who leads Conservation International’s Center for Oceans.

According to the Tristan da Cunha government, roughly 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 miles) of ocean will be closed to all human activity, while the remaining 10 percent will be set aside as a sustainable fishing area for the island’s 260 residents — who own and operate a small lobster fishery certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. Through a new global partnership, the Blue Nature Alliance, Conservation International provided critical funding and crucial technical expertise that enabled this area to be protected at twice the size it would have been otherwise.

Experts say that Tristan da Cunha’s commitment to protect its waters will provide a major contribution to the global goal of protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans — which scientists say is necessary to limit the marine impacts of climate change and prevent widespread extinctions of marine species. Currently, only 8 percent of the world’s oceans are protected.

“We applaud the Tristan da Cunha community for their incredible leadership," said Wilhelm. "Their commitment to sustainably utilize 10 percent of their marine waters while setting aside 90 percent from extraction in service to the planet and humanity is nothing short of heroic. Large-ocean states and territories continue to take bold action to ensure the health of the ocean, and we hope their example inspires others to join the global effort to protect a third of our global ocean by 2030.”

The creation of this marine protected area was supported by the Tristan da Cunha government, the UK Government Blue Belt Programme, National Geographic Pristine Seas, the Great British Oceans Coalition, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Becht Family Charitable Trust, Wyss Foundation, Kaltroco and Don Quixote Foundation.

‘Aulani Wilhelm is the senior vice president of Conservation International's Center for Oceans. Kiley Price is a staff writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates here. Donate to Conservation International here.

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