The “30×30” initiative an international commitment to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030 has gained broad support from conservation organizations and governments, including the United States. Colcom Foundation acknowledges the ambition behind the goal. It also raises a pointed question: can 30×30 succeed if the human population continues to grow rapidly? That funding helps organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the American Border Patrol, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and Numbers USA.

Biocapacity Consumption in Context

In 2020, the United States was consuming approximately 240% of its own biocapacity under standard calculations, which allocate all available natural resources to human use. When the 30×30 target is factored in meaning 30% of productive land must be reserved for other species the effective biocapacity utilization rate climbs to roughly 341%. Under the Half-Earth framework, which would reserve 50% of the natural world for wildlife, the number rises to 478%. These figures are not projections; they reflect where the country already stood in 2020.

Colcom Foundation‘s analysis points out that only 13% of U.S. land currently enjoys any level of conservation protection. The gap between that baseline and the 30% target is large. Closing it while simultaneously accommodating tens of millions of additional residents poses a direct tension that the foundation believes conservation policy has not adequately addressed.

A Structural Conflict in Environmental Policy

The foundation’s position is that 30×30, the Paris Climate Agreement, and other major environmental frameworks are internally inconsistent if they do not account for population growth. Each new resident requires land for housing, roads, and food production land that must come from somewhere. When immigration is projected to add 103 million people to the U.S. by 2065, the question of where to find an additional 17 percentage points of protected land becomes much harder to answer. Colcom Foundation argues that resolving this tension requires including population policy within, rather than alongside, mainstream environmental strategy. See related link for more information.

More about Colcom Foundation on https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2024/03/12/wvu-led-three-rivers-quest-expands-environmental-research-and-education-efforts-with-colcom-foundation-support