The global initiative known as 30×30 aims to protect 30% of the planet’s terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine areas by 2030. While many countries are committed to conservation, the costs associated with achieving this goal can be prohibitive. The need for an innovative policy solution to reduce the costs of conservation became apparent to researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.
To address the issue of uneven costs and benefits associated with conservation, researchers proposed a market-based approach that allows countries to trade conservation credits. By enabling voluntary trade, the costs of conservation could be significantly reduced, sometimes by more than 90%. This approach would incentivize nations to meet their conservation goals more effectively and efficiently.
The market system devised by the researchers at UC Santa Barbara involves a transferable conservation market policy built around ecological principles. Under this system, countries with higher conservation costs can pay others to increase their conservation efforts, thereby achieving a more balanced and cost-effective distribution of conservation obligations. This approach could lead to potential global cost savings under various trading constraints.
Through their model, researchers were able to estimate the potential costs and benefits of implementing a conservation market for achieving 30×30 targets in the ocean. By combining distribution data for marine species with fisheries revenue data, they created conservation supply curves for coastal nations around the world. Trading conservation credits within predefined “trade bubbles” based on ecological and geographic factors ensures equitable distribution of conservation efforts.
The introduction of a conservation credit system could also help address issues of conservation colonialism. Rather than allowing wealthy nations to simply pay off their conservation obligations and offload them to poorer nations, the market system ensures that all exchanges are voluntary. Developing nations could benefit from the flexibility offered by the market approach, allowing them to weigh their finances against conservation costs and make strategic decisions on fulfilling their conservation obligations.
By lowering costs and incentivizing action through market mechanisms, the conservation market approach proposed by the researchers could not only help achieve the 30×30 targets but also redirect savings towards addressing other pressing environmental issues. This innovative policy solution offers a new perspective on achieving conservation goals and ensuring the long-term health of our planet’s ecosystems.