Progress Report: Two years into the Wyss Campaign for Nature
On October 31, 2018, Hansjörg Wyss, the chairman and founder of the Wyss Foundation, launched the Wyss Campaign for Nature with a 10-year, $1 billion commitment to accelerate the pace of conservation. Partnering with local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and nations, the Wyss Campaign for Nature is working to help protect 30x30 – 30% of the planet, on land and at sea, by 2030.
Since launching the Wyss Campaign for Nature, the Wyss Foundation has disbursed and committed $350 million in grant funds. With this funding, conservation partners have protected nearly 18.5 million acres of land and over 160,000 square kilometers of the ocean. That’s the equivalent of protecting over eight Yellowstone National Parks on land and nearly 18 Yellowstones at sea in just two years.
A few of the many Locally-Driven, Place-Based Conservation Projects Supported by the Wyss Campaign for Nature
To mark the two-year anniversary of the effort, Hansjörg Wyss chatted with the conservation news outlet, Mongabay, where he gave a progress report on the Wyss Campaign for Nature, discussed how nations have coalesced around 30x30 goals to save nature, and touched on how COVID-19 has impacted efforts to safeguard the planet’s wildlife and wild places. You can read the interview in full at Mongabay.
What’s Next for the Wyss Campaign for Nature?
As the Wyss Campaign for Nature begins its third year, we remain laser focused on achieving the same two goals that Hansjörg Wyss articulated when he launched the effort in 2018:
Convincing the world’s leaders to commit to protecting 30% of the Earth’s lands and oceans by 2030 at next year’s Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, while simultaneously securing commitments for new financial resources to achieve this target; and,
Providing the financial and technical support necessary for local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and nations to permanently protect the lands and waters most important to them.
COVID-19 has significantly impacted all of us. As nations have, understandably, shifted their focus to safeguarding their citizens from the pandemic, efforts to confront the nature crisis – including securing a global 30x30 target and mobilizing financial resources for conservation – have seen delays.
Nonetheless, this critical work continues. To date, over 30 nations have publicly pledged their support for the 30x30 goal. Between now and the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (currently scheduled for May 2021 in Kunming, China, but subject to further delay), the Wyss Campaign for Nature and our partners will continue to build this coalition of nations, ensuring that Indigenous People- and local community-led conservation initiatives drive the effort, and that the 30x30 target respects the rights and incorporates the wisdom of the traditional custodians of the world’s remaining wildlands.
What’s more, we and our partners will continue working to identify new financial resources, and seek to reallocate existing financial resources, from businesses, governments, and other philanthropies to ensure that adequate funding is available to help nations safeguard ecologically and economically critical lands and oceans. The COVID-19 recovery plans that are being developed by many nations to rebuild their economies offer one pathway, as does building out national and regional Project Finance for Permanence funds and other innovative financing mechanisms.
The Wyss Foundation’s commitment to supporting on-the-ground, permanent protection projects will continue as well. Each year, the Wyss Foundation approves several new projects, and 2020 was no different. All told, the Foundation approved nearly $55 million to support on-the-ground projects that, together, will permanently protect 7 million acres of land around the world. While COVID-19 has delayed the implementation of many of these and other previously approved projects, the Foundation’s funding has, thus far, helped to protect more than 2.6 million acres during 2020.
As Hansjörg Wyss stated in his recent interview with Mongabay,
“To save ourselves, we must save nature. For our planet to remain livable over the long-term, it is going to take thousands of place-based conservation efforts, led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, to protect and restore lands, waters, and the ocean. We continue to seek out and support new projects that will help the world achieve the 30×30 target.”