Harvey Locke

Global conservation policies have long used area-based targets to mobilize expansion of protected areas. Despite the uneven distribution of biodiversity, different countries often have used the same global target to guide national plans. Here, we examined the necessity and feasibility of joint action by countries to conserve priorities identified g...

Working paper analysing the economic implications of the proposed 30% target for areal protection in the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Wilderness loss is one of the main threats to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity proposes "retaining wilderness areas" in the first target of the 21 action-oriented targets for 2030. We conducted a global analysis of projected loss of wildernes...

Anthropogenic land use change is a major driver of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans. According to the land use‐induced spillover model, land use change alters environmental conditions that in turn alter the dynamics between zoonotic pathogens and their wildlife hosts. Thus, in response to the global spread of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus...

Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and conservation is needed in many places including human-dominated landscapes. Evaluation of conflict risk between biodiversity conservation and human activities is a prerequisite for countries to develop strategies to achieve better conservation outcomes. However, quantitative methods to measure...

Founded in 1993, the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) vision was one of the earliest large‐landscape conservation visions. Despite growing recognition of large‐landscape conservation strategies, there have been few tests to date of conservation gains achieved through such approaches. We tested for conservation gains in the Y2Y region of North America fol...

Significance The current biodiversity crisis is often depicted as a struggle to preserve untouched habitats. Here, we combine global maps of human populations and land use over the past 12,000 y with current biodiversity data to show that nearly three quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and u...

En ecosistemas terrestres, dulceacuícolas y marinos, los corredores ecológicos son una designación de conservación necesaria para asegurar la salud de los ecosistemas. Los corredores son elementos fundamentales de las redes ecológicas para la conservación y complementan los objetivos de las áreas protegidas y OMEC al conectar estos hábitats con otr...

Earth systems are under ever greater pressure from human population expansion and intensifying natural resource use. Consequently, micro-organisms that cause disease are emerging and the dynamics of pathogens in wildlife are altered by land use change, bringing wildlife and people in closer contact. We provide a brief overview of the processes gove...

The rapid global spread and human health impacts of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, show humanity's vulnerability to zoonotic disease pandemics. Although anthropogenic land use change is known to be the major driver of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to human populations, the scientific underpinnings of land use-induced zoonot...

La connectivité écologique est le mouvement sans entrave des espèces et le flux des processus naturels qui soutiennent la vie sur Terre. Il est impérieux que les pays du monde entier s’orientent vers une approche globale et cohérente de la conservation de la connectivité écologique, et qu’ils entreprennent de mesurer et de contrôler l’efficacité de...

Earth systems are under ever greater pressure from human population expansion and intensifying natural resource use. Consequently, novel microorganisms that cause disease are emerging, dynamics of pathogens in wildlife are altered by land use change bringing wildlife and people in closer contact. We provide a brief overview of the processes governi...

Anthropogenic land use change is the major driver of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans. In response to the global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the agent of COVID-19 disease), there have been renewed calls for landscape conservation as a disease preventive measure. While protected areas are a vital conservation tool for wildland...

The rapid, global spread and human health impacts of SARS-CoV-2, the agent of COVID-19 disease, demonstrates humanity’s vulnerability to zoonotic disease pandemics. Although anthropogenic land use change is known to be the major driver of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to human populations, the scientific underpinnings of land use-induce...

Executive summary: Ecological connectivity is the unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth. This definition has been endorsed by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, 2020) and underlines the urgency of protecting connectivity and its various elements, including dispersal, seasonal migration, fl...

Our review of the scientific evidence for large-scale percentage area conservation targets concluded: 1. The 17 per cent terrestrial and inland waters, and 10 per cent marine and coastal targets from Aichi Target 11 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 are not adequate to conserve biodiversity. 2. Percentage area targets cannot be consi...

We surveyed 335 conservation scientists, from 81 countries, in English, French and Spanish for views on area-based conservation relating to the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity and potential future targets, especially a successor to Aichi Target 11. The results can be summarised as follows: 1. Near...

We performed a rapid global assessment of the availability and robustness of conservation strategies for ecoregions. In some cases this involved assessment of large regions composed of multiple ecoregions. We found ecoregion and regional conservation strategies through internet searches, guided by Google Search Engine, Google Scholar, literature ci...

We assess progress toward the protection of 50% of the terrestrial biosphere to address the species-extinction crisis and conserve a global ecological heritage for future generations. Using a map of Earth's 846 terrestrial ecoregions, we show that 98 ecoregions (12%) exceed Half Protected; 313 ecoregions (37%) fall short of Half Protected but have...

Gravel-bed river floodplains in mountain landscapes disproportionately concentrate diverse habitats, nutrient cycling, productivity of biota, and species interactions. Although stream ecologists know that river channel and floodplain habitats used by aquatic organisms are maintained by hydrologic regimes that mobilize gravel-bed sediments, terrestr...

The World Heritage Convention could make a bigger and more systematic contribution to global wilderness conservation by: (1) ensuring the World Heritage List includes full coverage of Earth's wilderness areas with outstanding universal value; and (2) more effectively protecting the ecological integrity of existing World Heritage sites. Here we asse...

FOR THE LAST ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS the Yellowstone to Yukon region of western North America has been at the forefront of conservation. For this reason it remains home to many free-flowing rivers, wild animals, beautiful national parks, and wilderness solitude. It also is home for many humans. If every region in the world were to have benefite...

I ARGUE THAT CONSERVATION TARGETS should be based on what is necessary to protect nature in all its expressions. When in 1987 the Brundtland Report called for tripling the world’s protected area estate (which was then at 3–4 percent of the land area) there was a strong belief that sustainable development would ensure the proper care for nature on t...

CONSERVATIONISTS ARE ACCUSTOMED to having a clear foe-the exploiters who would use up this beautiful world and then move on to use up the next planet. The exploiters are hubristic and interested only in what they can exploit for personal gain. Their core philosophy was captured succinctly by Robert Bidinotto: "Nature indeed provides beautiful setti...

Conservation targets should be based on what is necessary to protect nature in all its expressions. When in 1988 the Brundtland report called for tripling the world’s protected area estate (which was then at 3 to 4 per cent of the land area) there was a strong belief that sustainable development would ensure the proper care for nature on the rest o...

I grew up in the Calgary-Banff area, where my family has deep roots in the Canadian Rockies. We spent much of our leisure time in Banff National Park, hiking and horse riding in the summer and skiing in the winter. We routinely saw wildlife, we drank directly from undammed streams, and I was reared on stories of family encounters with grizzly bears...

Large landscape conservation designed to ensure the survival of all native species on an increasingly human-dominated planet requires us to think at multiple scales and across multiple jurisdictions (Locke 2012). In the Yellowstone to Yukon region in the northern Rocky Mountains of western North America, the full complement of native species is fou...

SHOULD CONSERVATION TARGETS, such as the proportion of a region to be placed in protected areas, be socially acceptable from the start? Or should they be based unapologetically on the best available science and expert opinion, then address issues of practicality later? Such questions strike to the philosophical core of conservation. Ambitious targe...

Large intact wilderness areas remain the cornerstone of any conservation effort; however, they alone are insufficient to secure the perpetuation of the species and processes they are meant to protect. Scientific studies of species extinction patterns, natural processes, and climate change adaptation have established the need to move from managing a...

For the good of the climate, the time has come for a major initiative to re-unite climate change mitigation efforts with biodiversity conservation and wilderness protection. Recent scientific research has shown clearly that protecting primary ecosystems such as forests, wetlands and peatlands (whether they be tropical, temperate or boreal) keeps th...

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) plays a global leadership role in defining different types of protected areas, and influencing how protected area systems develop and are managed. Following the 1992 World Parks Congress, a new system of categorizing protected areas was developed. New categories were introduced, including categories that allowed...

Banff National Park is a mountainous area of the Canadian Rockies which forms part of the larger ecosystem running from Yellowstone to the Yukon. Recent research has demonstrated that to maintain wide-ranging species like grizzly bears and wolves, a landscape approach must be taken to ensure connections between populations. Like all Western North A...

The law governing large carnivores in the western U.S. and western Canada abounds in jurisdictional complexity. In the U.S., different federal and state laws govern large carnivore conservation efforts; species listed under the Endangered Species Act are generally protected, whereas those subject to state regulation can be hunted, trapped, or other...

We are here because we love the Earth. We are gathered at this 35th anniversary dinner to celebrate our efforts to protect some of Nature's bounty from despoilation. It is important that we do this together – that we laugh – celebrate – rejoice that some parts of this unbelievably wonderful country have been protected by law. But when our party is...