Smithsonian National Museum of Natural HistoryWashington D.C.

Just ahead of Half-Earth Day, the Yale BGC Center members attended “Our Shared Future: A Celebration of Half-Earth Day” in Washington, D.C., on October 13th to present new strides in our science and discuss our progress in achieving conservation goals alongside government, NGO, community, research, and business leaders.  

At Our Shared Future, BGC Center members promoted a science-driven lens for conservation decision making, speaking to the importance of species as the essential units of ecosystems and introducing our new high-resolution biodiversity maps. Thanks to the hard work of nearly the entire BGC Center and crucial improvements in our species spatial modeling workflows, we released a set of unprecedented 1-kilometer richness and rarity maps for the United States and Canada. These capture all species in the four terrestrial vertebrate groups plus butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies. We introduced these additions to the Half-Earth Map on stage in D.C., emphasizing the actionable scale of these new data.  

We also heard from many friends about the importance of engaging with local and indigenous communities, including restoration goals, and operating at local scales in conservation planning. As we at the BGC Center continue to develop high-resolution species maps in North America and beyond, we look forward to working with stakeholders to provide concrete paths forward to conserve species around the world.

All sessions were recorded and are now available for public viewing at vimeo.com/showcase/9915644!