Sierra Club, Nature Needs Half Join Forces to Protect Half the Planet

BOULDER, COLORADO – The Sierra Club and Nature Needs Half, an international coalition formed in 2009 to advance the protection of 50% of Earth’s land and seas, proudly announce a new partnership to help halt the Sixth Extinction and provide a feasible and affordable solution to the climate crisis.

With this partnership, Sierra Club joins a host of environmental NGOs, scientists, Indigenous Peoples, and business leaders who have helped shape the Nature Needs Half vision.

This partnership attracts new attention to the necessity of preserving half of Earth’s nature, especially the role of healthy, abundant biodiversity in the production of a stable climate, while placing the goals of indigenous and frontline communities at the forefront.

Both the Sierra Club and Nature Needs Half hope that their alliance will encourage political and business leaders to take advantage of a narrowing window-of-opportunity to transform humanity’s relationship with the natural world for the benefit of life on Earth. Their alliance is formed in advance of two United Nations’ conventions scheduled in 2020, addressing both the climate and biodiversity crisis.

In the wake of surging alarm about the widespread destruction of Earth’s biosphere, many scientists and policy experts are considering ambitious new conservation solutions at a global scale in order to defend Earth’s life-giving, biological processes. Chief among these is the science-based consensus that humanity must protect approximately half of each of Earth’s ecoregions to preserve the nature-based benefits they confer.

“In the U.S., the science shows that we need to protect roughly half our remaining undeveloped natural areas in order to safeguard our outdoors and our climate,” said Dan Ritzman, Lands, Water and Wildlife director for Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign. “Sierra Club is dedicated to making sure public lands are part of the climate solution.”

One of the many barriers to achieving environmental policy informed by scientific consensus is a lack of political will. In 2009, at the 9th World Wilderness Congress, the Nature Needs Half movement was launched to overcome that hurdle. Since then, it has built international, cross-sector support for the protection of half of Earth.

Its impact is visible in an April 2019 study which determined that Canadians overwhelmingly support protecting half of nature. Other nations, especially in Western Europe, are also embracing public support for giving nature the space it needs to continue to function for the benefit of all life.

“The Nature Needs Half movement is thrilled to welcome the Sierra Club to the fold - their direct action, science-driven campaigns are the need of the hour and we look forward to working with them to drive our vision of protecting and sustainable managing 50% of the planet,” said Swati Hingorani, Nature Needs Half Steering Committee Chairwoman.

The new partnership between the Sierra Club, one of America’s most progressive and long-standing environmental organizations, and Nature Needs Half, brings fresh reinforcement to nascent public opinion trends. By working together, both groups are determined to make a global impact that will be felt for generations to come in an enduring and respectful relationship between society and Earth’s irreplaceable wild nature.