WILD Foundation

Protect 50% of the planet by 2050.

Yes, we know: it’s ambitious. It is, in fact, as ambitious as it is necessary.

Scientific research tells us that for life to thrive on Earth, we must protect 50% of the planet by 2050. We call it Nature Needs Half, and we are organizing a campaign that will reach 40% of the world’s population by the end of 2020 to demonstrate to the United Nations that Earth’s people care about the future, they care about nature, and they are ready to protect half of planet for the benefit of all life. Reaching this goal by 2050 will halt the Sixth Mass Extinction in its tracks, and will ensure that the species and ecosystems that help regulate weather and climate remain intact and functioning. WILD cannot do this alone. That is why we are working to make 50% by 2050 the new target at the 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity. Setting 50% by 2050 as the international goal gives conservation leaders and organizations from around the world the mandate to push for larger protected areas in their communities.

To accomplish this, we pursue two different types of outcomes: those that answer direct need and those that improve the possibility for more ambitious change now and in the future. Impact that improves possibilities is critical at this moment in our relationship with nature, and we believe it is the key to conservation’s success. Responding to direct need alone can lead to reactive approaches that ignore wider, systemic challenges. When we work to address root causes, putting in place structures that empower more ambitious action on a planetary-scale, we put in place the conditions necessary to change the trajectory of history.

WILD is uniquely suited to the task. More than forty years ago we started in one of the BRICS nations (South Africa) when our founders were the first to remove a large mammal from the endangered species list by saving the southern white rhino from extinction. This experience taught them that the quest to save species will ultimately fail if we don’t build a global effort to protect wild places. Since then, WILD has been working to make wilderness protection a priority in nations around the world, and we are well-positioned to work in the BRICS nations where we have many strong partnerships that will help organize and implement regional campaigns for Nature Needs Half.

While convincing the BRICS countries to adopt 50% by 2050 is daunting, we have a strong basis for believing we can do so. WILD was founded in South Africa and we have a sister organization that still works to protect wilderness there. We have been working in China for the last four years, successfully adding wilderness into their national frameworks for environmental protection. We are also partnered with one of the largest environmental groups in India.

While small, our team of world-class professionals is doggedly committed to the defense of nature

International Wilderness Policy
WILD has placed and kept wilderness on the agenda in international institutions. Because of our work, primarily through the World Wilderness Congress which we organize approximately every four years, numerous new protected areas have been established and expanded. And we have literally helped create the world for “wilderness” in several languages.

Protected Areas Free of Industrial Extraction
Through a WILD-led initiative and campaign, 150 countries agreed in 2016 to a recommendation against industrial-extraction in protected areas. Shocking though it may be, this is the first time countries have come together around such a decision. As a result, millions of square kilometers of new protected areas created since then have benefited from this resolution.

Addressing the Root Cause of Wilderness Degradation
More than forty years ago, WILD’s founders were the first to take a large mammal off the endangered species list when they saved the Southern White Rhino from the brink of extinction. What they learned from that experience, however, is that if we take a species-by-species approach to the biodiversity crisis, we will win a lot of battles but ultimately lose the war for a wild planet. As a result of that lesson, WILD has worked to build a coordinated, international community of leaders for wilderness, strengthening respect and protection for wildlife and wild places around the world. This work is evident in the first continental-scale wilderness and protected area agreement which we facilitate at the highest echelons of North American land management agencies and in our grassroots work with emerging leaders on the frontlines of conservation’s biggest challenges in the CoalitionWILD program.