Fifteen years ago, Yale scientists launched a digital platform called "Map of Life," an initiative to monitor changes in global species populations and support practitioners with robust conservation guidance. With climate change and human development altering habitats worldwide, the need for information, tools, and careful surveillance was accelerating.
This fall, Map of Life delivered some encouraging news. Its second annual Species Protection Report - which documents progress in species conservation, from global to national and regional levels - showed that overall protection efforts in 2025, including governmental and private conservation initiatives, increased by 6% on land and by 4% in the seas. And they found that the amount of land area gaining protected status increased by 0.7%, and protected marine areas increased by 1.4%.
"It's nice to be able to document real progress," said Walter Jetz, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, who has spearheaded Map of Life initiative since its launch. "Clearly, more nations are taking the biodiversity crisis seriously and stepping up their efforts."
The report was officially released during the Half-Earth Day event at Chicago's Field Museum in October, a celebration that attracted individuals from across the world (including the actor Harrison Ford, who was the special guest).
Map of Life produces the report in partnership with the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Half-Earth Project. Central to its message is the distinction that conservation is about more than protecting land; It's about helping biodiversity flourish on that land.
