Mapping the planet's critical natural assets

Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer; Rachel A Neugarten; Richard P Sharp; Pamela M Collins; Stephen Polasky; David Hole; Richard Schuster; Matthew Strimas-Mackey; Mark Mulligan; Carter Brandon; Sandra Diaz; Etienne Fluet-Chouinard; L J Gorenflo; Justin A Johnson; Christina M Kennedy; Patrick W Keys; Kate Longley-Wood; Peter B McIntyre; Monica Noon; Unai Pascual; Catherine Reidy Liermann; Patrick R Roehrdanz; Guido Schmidt-Traub; M Rebecca Shaw; Mark Spalding; Will R Turner; Arnout van Soesbergen; Reg A Watson

doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01934-5

Mapping the planet's critical natural assets

Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Jan;7(1):51-61. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01934-5. Epub 2022 Nov 28.

Authors

Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer^{1

2

3}, Rachel A Neugarten^{4

5}, Richard P Sharp⁶, Pamela M Collins⁵, Stephen Polasky⁷, David Hole⁵, Richard Schuster^{8

9}, Matthew Strimas-Mackey¹⁰, Mark Mulligan¹¹, Carter Brandon¹², Sandra Diaz^{13

14}, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard¹⁵, L J Gorenflo¹⁶, Justin A Johnson⁷, Christina M Kennedy¹⁷, Patrick W Keys¹⁸, Kate Longley-Wood¹⁹, Peter B McIntyre⁴, Monica Noon⁵, Unai Pascual^{20

21

22}, Catherine Reidy Liermann²³, Patrick R Roehrdanz⁵, Guido Schmidt-Traub²⁴, M Rebecca Shaw²⁵, Mark Spalding^{19

26}, Will R Turner⁵, Arnout van Soesbergen^{11

27}, Reg A Watson²⁸

Affiliations

¹ SPRING, Oakland, CA, USA. rchaplin@umn.edu.
² Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA. rchaplin@umn.edu.
³ Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. rchaplin@umn.edu.
⁴ Dept. of Natural Resources & Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
⁵ Conservation International, Arlington, VA, USA.
⁶ SPRING, Oakland, CA, USA.
⁷ Dept. of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
⁸ Dept. of Biology, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁹ Nature Conservancy of Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁰ Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹¹ Dept. of Geography, King's College London, Bush House, London, UK.
¹² World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
¹³ Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), CONICET, Casilla de Correo 495, Córdoba, Argentina.
¹⁴ Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología, Córdoba, Argentina.
¹⁵ Dept. of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁶ Dept. of Landscape Architecture, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA.
¹⁷ Global Protect Oceans, Lands and Waters Program, The Nature Conservancy, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
¹⁸ School of Global Environmental Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
¹⁹ The Nature Conservancy, 4245 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, USA.
²⁰ Basque Centre for Climate Change, Sede Building 1, 1st floor. Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain.
²¹ Basque Foundation for Science, Ikerbasque, Bilbao, Spain.
²² Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
²³ College of the Environment, Western Washington University - Salish Sea Region, Everett, WA, USA.
²⁴ SYSTEMIQ Ltd, 110 High Holborn, London, UK.
²⁵ World Wildlife Fund, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²⁶ Dept. of Physical, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, Pian dei Mantellini, Siena, Italy.
²⁷ UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK.
²⁸ Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, 20 Castray Esplanade, Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Abstract

Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems and processes that underpin human wellbeing is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we define critical natural assets as the natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature's contributions to people (NCP), and we map the global locations of these critical natural assets at 2 km resolution. Critical natural assets for maintaining local-scale NCP (12 of the 14 NCP) account for 30% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters, while 44% of land area is required to also maintain two global-scale NCP (carbon storage and moisture recycling). These areas overlap substantially with cultural diversity (areas containing 96% of global languages) and biodiversity (covering area requirements for 73% of birds and 66% of mammals). At least 87% of the world's population live in the areas benefitting from critical natural assets for local-scale NCP, while only 16% live on the lands containing these assets. Many of the NCP mapped here are left out of international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet this analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets and the NCP they provide could simultaneously advance development, climate and conservation goals.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Biodiversity
Birds
Conservation of Natural Resources
Ecosystem*
Humans
Mammals
Planets*