Goal 15 of 17 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, forests, and biodiversity.
Human life depends on the land as much as on the ocean. Plant life provides about 80 per cent of the human diet, forests cover roughly 31 per cent of the land surface, and terrestrial ecosystems supply the clean air, water and soil that everything else rests on.
They are being degraded fast. Around 10 million hectares of forest are lost every year, up to 40 per cent of land is degraded, affecting half of humanity and hitting poor communities hardest, and about one million species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction — many of them within decades. Around 7,000 species are traded illegally, and wildlife trafficking undermines biodiversity while fuelling insecurity and corruption.
Protection does work where it is funded and enforced: about 17 per cent of land and inland waters is now under some form of protection, and restoration commitments are growing. But protected areas need to be effectively managed, and Indigenous and local communities must be partners rather than bystanders.
Goal 15 sets out to halt deforestation, restore degraded land and soil, end poaching and trafficking of protected species, and integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national planning by 2030.