Global critical natural assets

Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems, and processes that underpin human well-being is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we analyze 12 of natures contributions to people (NCP) for food, water, and climate security. Using spatial optimization, we identify critical natural assets, the most important ecosystems for providing NCP, comprising 39% of total global land area and 24% of national territorial waters. Many of these NCP are overlooked by international agreements focused on conserving species or mitigating climate change, yet our analysis shows that explicitly prioritizing critical natural assets jointly advances development, climate, and conservation goals. Developing policy and investment strategies that protect critical natural assets is essential for securing Earths life support systems. One Sentence SummaryGlobal optimization shows 39% of land and 24% of ocean area contains 90% of current levels of provision for 12 of natures contributions to people.