https://www.vox.com/22369705/biden-conservation-biodiversity-collapse-30-by-30

The goal to protect 30 percent of the Earth is more arbitrary than you might think.By Benji Jones  Apr 12, 2021, 7:30am EDT

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Right now, in the conservation movement, a lot of people are fixated on a single number: 30.

The US andmore than 50 other countrieshave pledged to conserve 30 percent of their land and water by 2030 as a means to help thwart the biodiversity crisis.

Biodiversity tends to increase with the area of land or water conserved, yet just 16 percent of global land is in protected areas today (in the US, it’s closer to 12 percent), according to theWorld Database on Protected Areas. Intact ecosystems also play a major role in mitigating climate change.

As conservationists have recognized the importance of…