30x30
In 2022 , 198 nations of the world agreed to the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework , including the extraordinarily ambitious target to conserve 30 percent of the Earth ’ s lands and waters by 2030 . A champion of expanding protected areas since our founding in 1988 , Rainforest Trust enlisted enthusiastic participation from our donors once again in 2023 , and with our regional partners , we achieved new protections for 2,288,758 acres of terrestrial and marine areas . Described here are three very different ecosystems that were legally protected during 2023 and where our partners addressed threats from poaching , commercial agriculture , and mining to stop biodiversity loss .
Republic of the Congo
Across a mosaic of savanna , river networks , and dense tropical rainforest connecting Gabon and the Republic of the
Congo , Rainforest Trust and our partner , Panthera , helped to expand central Africa ’ s largest trans-border park . Early in 2023 , national park designation was announced for 861,642 acres , expanding the newly created Ogooué-Lékéti National Park in the Republic of the Congo .
This new parkland forms a protected swath of 1.8 million acres for Critically Endangered Western Lowland Gorilla and African Forest Elephant and Endangered Chimpanzee by connecting with the Batéké Plateau National Park in Gabon . Achieving stable populations of these and other imperiled species will support the return of top carnivores , which are essential to ecosystem health . The African Wild Dog and Spotted Hyaena and Lion were eradicated here during Colonial times , but now there is hope for their return . Ogooué-Lékéti National Park will employ a force of park rangers to assure the protection of rare species targeted by poachers for bushmeat and body parts .
Cambodia
In Cambodia , we protected 94,963 acres of a grassland habitat that is home to a small population of 200 Critically Endangered Bengal Florican . The newly established Bakan Landscape
Protected Area at Tonle Sap Lake will safeguard other rare grassland birds , including Critically Endangered Yellowbreasted Bunting as well as the Critically Endangered Siamese Crocodile , in an area where destructive commercial rice plantations are a threat .
The Bakan is also the last remaining patch of inner-floodplain grassland capable of the traditional deepwater rice cultivation that Indigenous communities rely on . With the new , protective designation in place , our partner , Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia , is working to safeguard this traditional method of rice cultivation ,
above Mangroves in Guinea-Bissau | antonie marchal
20 Rainforest Trust 2023 Annual Report