Designing Nature’s Half

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.