To help address the biodiversity crisis, momentum has been gaining around establishing and tracking protected areas (PAs) and Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) to achieve 30-by-30, the conserving of 30% of our Earth by 2030. However, a wide variety of conservation efforts occur beyond PAs and OECMs, often led by actors that are traditionally underrepresented in global databases. How do we track global conservation progress to best support inclusive and equitable conservation? Currently, global area-based conservation progress is officially tracked by the World Databases on Protected Areas (WDPA) and on Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM). These databases rely primarily on reporting by governments. However, it is possible to approach the challenge of recognizing conservation areas differently. A more inclusive, bottom-up, and empirically-based approach, parallel to the official process, can look holistically to where people are already managing areas with conservation intent, or in ways that have potential conservation outcomes. To be effective, the approach should engage local knowledge and embrace diverse inputs, rather than defaulting to top-down guidance with predefined criteria. To illustrate the importance of a more inclusive approach of tracking conservation progress, we tested such an approach in the Amazonian countries and territories, and uncovered some unique insights. By simply utilizing existing literature, reports, legal documents, and local expertise, we already get a better idea of conservation progress and potential than official databases. For instance, we found that more than 40% of the land area of all nine Amazonian countries is governed with conservation potential or…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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