Designing Nature’s Half
Advancing climate adaptation & biodiversity conservation
Turning the 50×50 vision into landscape-scale reality.
The Triple Planetary Crisis
Pollution
Climate Change
Biodiversity Loss
Why Large-Scale Conservation Requires Design
Giving half of the Earth back to nature is not a new idea. Its scientific roots stretch back more than four decades, to the emergence of conservation biology and landscape ecology in the late 20th century—fields that challenged fragmented, site-by-site conservation and began articulating a more systemic approach. A decade later, the first call for conserving and restoring “preferably at least half – of [the] continent as true Wilderness, with its full complement of native species and ecological processes” was published in a non-profit periodical promoting the tenets of conservation biology: Wild Earth.
Today, that unfinished vision collides with a stark reality. The world faces a triple planetary crisis—pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss—an interconnected, wicked problem that cannot be solved through isolated actions or single-sector solutions. Addressing it requires collaboration across boundaries, scales, and disciplines.
Landscape conservation design (LCD) provides a framework for doing exactly that. LCD is a stakeholder-driven, participatory process that applies interdisciplinary science to inform decisions about land use, conservation priorities, and adaptation strategies. By integrating ecological knowledge with social, cultural, and governance realities, LCD supports landscape-scale conservation efforts that are both scientifically credible and socially durable. In practice, it helps diverse actors work toward shared outcomes—building the conditions for collective impact and long-term sustainability. Essays and analyses about LCD can be found on our blog and podcast.
Our Strategy: Design Nature’s Half
Design sustainable landscapes
Conserve 50% by 2050
Protect 1 million species
Restore terrestrial habitats
Mitigate greenhouse gases
Support cooperatives
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More than fifty years after its creation, World Environment Day continues to raise awareness of environmental challenges. But as climate, biodiversity, water, and human systems become increasingly understood as interconnected, a deeper question emerges: how should society organize decisions across the systems that shape environmental outcomes? This reflection explores that question while marking an important milestone for Designing Nature's Half.