With launch of High Ambition Coalition, over 50 countries join forces to champion global 30x30 efforts

Today marks the launch of the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, a significant milestone in the global effort to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. The HAC is an intergovernmental group of more than 50 member nations, co-chaired by the governments of Costa Rica, France, and the United Kingdom. Alongside all member nations, these leaders are championing an ambitious global agenda to meet the scale of the crisis facing the planet’s wildlife and wild places.

“Thanks to the bold leadership of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and its more than 50 member nations, the global community is now coalescing around an ambitious and necessary agenda to save the planet’s most critical lands, waters, and wildlife,” said Hansjörg Wyss, founder and president of the Wyss Foundation. “By accelerating the rate at which we’re protecting and restoring natural areas, by listening to, learning from, and respecting the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, and by working purposefully to safeguard 30 percent of the planet by 2030 – on land and at sea – we can save nature and the many benefits it provides to our communities.” 

HAC member nations hail from all corners of the world, including Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Benin, Mozambique, Seychelles, and the list goes on and on. A full list of HAC nations is available here.

The future of life on Earth depends on preventing the collapse of the natural systems that provide our food, clean water, clean air, and stable climate. Scientists are clear: to preserve these services, we must accelerate the pace and scale of conservation, protecting at least 30 percent of the Earth – on land and sea - by 2030, en route to protecting half the earth by mid-century. In raising ambition for a global deal, the HAC for Nature and People acknowledges that success will only be possible by working alongside Indigenous communities and by supporting the rights of Indigenous Peoples in compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples including ensuring free, prior, and informed consent.

The HAC will utilize the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COPs and the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity later this year, to push all countries to support ambitious, science-driven global action to safeguard nature and humanity’s future.

In 2018, Hansjörg Wyss, founder and president of the Wyss Foundation, launched the Wyss Campaign for Nature, committing $1 billion to support the global effort to safeguard 30 percent of the planet by 2030 by partnering with local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and nations to permanently safeguard critical lands and marine areas. Describing his commitment, Wyss wrote in the New York Times, “Every one of us – citizens, philanthropists, business and government leaders – should be troubled by the enormous gap between how little of our natural world is currently protected and how much should be protected.”