This study has found that if 44% of the worlds land surface was given increased protection, then we could save many of the current 1 million species threatened with extinction.
While this accounts for almost half of the world land surface, 1.8 billion people live on this land. While this is a large number of people, it is only 23% of the worlds population.
Much of this land is already protected in some way, but roughly 12.4 million square miles would need to be added (around 20% of the land that was identified). About 70% of the land needed to be preserved is in a largely untouched state – unfortunately though, this is not likely to be the case for long if something is not done.
How this is done, while allowing these people to raise their standard of living is a big issue, but it is one we need to solve, if we are to leave our world in a good state for future generations.
