Global Safety Net promotes biodiversity

The Global Safety Net is a blueprint for saving areas of Earth essential for biodiversity and climate resilience, and the first estimate of the total amount of land area requiring protection to address the dual crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.

This project is critical because according to the 2024 World Wildlife report, from 1970 to 2020, we’ve lost an estimated 73% of the world’s wildlife populations on average.

Greg Asner, Director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the Global Safety Net.

“It’s one of the latest strategy-type analysis and documentation of where can we put our effort, our money, our collaborations around the planet to save the most number of species at this point,” Asner said. “My role in the effort has been mapping these species and understanding where do they exist, where are they living and what do the opportunities present to us for saving them. What percentages of them can be saved for the future?”

Asner also spoke to the project’s impact in the Sonoran Desert, which includes parts of Arizona.

“It’s a winner,” Asner said. “It gets the ribbon for first place for being the most diverse among the desert systems and really a treasure, not just for the U.S., but for the world. And it’s just another example of what we’re after here in this Global Safety Net. To find these places, to do what we can to help decision makers make decisions that are going to lead to the preservation of these areas.”