Global leaders are pushing for more land conservation.
Most nations have signed onto the United Nations’ goal to protect 30% of the world's land by 2030, and there are agreements to allow protected areas in international waters for the first time.
Austin Beacham, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, works to make that conservation as impactful as possible.
“To do so, we need to understand the dynamics that have led to the current situation,” Beacham said.
“We’ve conserved 18% of land so far, which is good, but biodiversity loss is still high. If we want to protect another 12%, but do it in a better way, we need to understand what has happened so far.”
Satellite Insights
Currently, an area the size of South America is protected in some way. The vast majority is managed solely or in partnership with government agencies.
“Yet, we don’t really understand why national parks and forests and reserves are where they are within countries, why some countries have a lot and some have a little, and what determines whether or not they're effective at actually improving environmental outcomes,” Beacham said.
He uses satellite data to compare protected areas across country borders, where similar geography and ecosystems allow him to measure differences caused by national and political factors. He examines how a country’s level of democracy and reliance on natural resources affects which areas it chooses to protect and to what extent, as well as how the country replaces natural areas after they’re exploited.
In the larger context, this work helps uncover insights on why institutions choose long-term investments in established land preserves vs. the short-term gains of resource extraction.
Satellite image of the Costa Rica and Nicaragua border area in 1995, showing the difference in the amount of protected areas on each side.
Economic Benefits
One thing that’s clear in Beacham’s work is that political efforts for land conservation are dependent on the economy.
He explains that the shift toward focusing on resource-intensive industries such as artificial intelligence and data centers, which consume large amounts of water and energy, can put issues like biodiversity conservation and climate change on the backseat. However, he also sees it as a political opportunity.
“If you can make the case that biodiversity conservation has long-term economic benefits and is actually good for local people, which it often is, then there's still an opportunity to make some inroads there even with that influence,” Beacham said.
Local Efforts
In his INTA 4040 course on environmental politics, Beacham also emphasizes two hopeful aspects of biodiversity conservation.
First, land conservation has not been as politically charged as the debate around climate change, making it a slightly less contentious topic in government policy.
Second, each small park or established conservation area can make a big impact. Countries don’t necessarily have to come together globally — like they do to reduce emissions — to still create change.
“Every little bit matters,” Beacham says. “If the governor of Georgia decides to establish a forest reserve, that’s an intact, healthy ecosystem that wouldn’t be there otherwise. And if lots of places do that locally, it can make a huge difference on a global scale, even if the bigger trends aren’t always going in the right direction.”
Collaboration
Understanding political decision making is an important factor in biodiversity conservation, which makes Georgia Tech and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts a perfect place for biologists, ecologists, and social scientists to come together and make change.
“Scientists know what needs to happen and that the state of biodiversity around the world is getting worse and worse. But unless we actually figure out how to convince decision makers in the broader public to care about these things and take action, it's not going to make a difference,” Beacham said.
“At some point, you have to have the buy-in of politicians or policymakers, and that's what we in the liberal arts college and the social sciences study — how people and organizations make the decisions that they do. That’s where we can make our contribution."
