Species protection rises 6% on land and 4% in the seas in 2025
Nov 1, 2025
The second annual Species Protection Report finds important progress in global species protection
Photo credit: Tz-Hsuan Tseng
This year’s Half-Earth Day, hosted at the Field Museum of Chicago and anchored by actor Harrison Ford as special guest, saw the release of the second-annual Species Protection Report produced in partnership by the Map of Life and the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
The report documents global progress since 2024 in species protection on the land and seas as assessed by the Species Protection Index (SPI), a biodiversity indicator formally adopted by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a component indicator for Target 3 and produced by Map of Life, the flagship initiative of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.
(left) In terrestrial vertebrates, the Species Protection Index (SPI) finally crossed the halfway mark with a 3.1 point increase. A taxonomic breakdown of that score shows that birds and mammals have higher average SPIs while amphibians and reptiles have lower SPIs. (right) Marine SPI rose by 2.3 points to reach 62.1 in 2025, with fish reaching a similar average SPI and mammals rising ten points above the SPI.
According to the report, global protection of terrestrial vertebrates increased 6% from last year, with the SPI rising from 47.8 to 50.9 points out of one hundred. Marine fish and mammal protection also rose nearly 4%, with the SPI rising from 59.8 to 62.1 out of one hundred. These increases follow an additional 0.7% of land area and 1.4% of marine area gaining protected status in the past year, thanks to both newly-established or newly-recognized and reported protected areas and other effective conservation measures.
“These results deliver some much-needed good news for species in some parts of the world”, says Walter Jetz, Director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change and Map of Life Lead. ”The report shows how smart conservation planning can deliver outsized biodiversity benefits and how science-driven metrics are key to guiding effective actions to stem the tide of species extinctions”.
National 2025 terrestrial vertebrate SPI. Black outlines indicate subregions and thick white outlines indicate the country with the highest national SPI in their subregion.
For tens of thousands of species, the SPI measures how adequately protected area networks represent the habitats they need most. Each species receives its own protection score, measuring how close it is to reaching its target habitat protection coverage on a scale of 0 to 100. These individual scores are aggregated up to the national scale to reveal how well each country is meeting these overall biodiversity protection goals.
(Left) The Oman anemonefish (Amphiprion omanensis) experienced an 86-point increase in its protection score in the past year. Photo credit: © cmarmotte via iNaturalist. (Right) The Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion thamnobates), one of the species featured in the report, is an endangered species endemic to South Africa. Despite global SPI increases, this species is still largely unprotected with a protection score of just 4 out of 100. Photo credit: © Gus Benson via iNaturalist.
The 2025 SPI includes 34,000 terrestrial vertebrate species, 13,000 marine fish and vertebrate species, and, for the first time, 45,000 tree species.
On land, European and African countries tend to have the highest SPIs: for example, Botswana has reached a terrestrial vertebrate SPI of 94 and Poland has reached the highest possible SPI of 100, meaning all assessed species have adequate coverage. For trees, Latin American countries also stand high on the SPI spectrum alongside many European and African countries, with Venezuela for example reaching 95. In the seas, Western and Northern Europe, Micronesia, and Australia lead the pack, with several nations and territories achieving very high SPI, including Palau, New Caledonia, and the Seychelles.
The report highlights countries that saw the largest gains in species protection in the last year, including Oman, which achieved a 30-point increase in terrestrial vertebrate SPI and a 79-point increase in marine SPI in the past year. These conservation efforts have improved the protection scores of numerous Arabian species, such as the Oman anemonefish (Amphiprion omanensis) and the Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia).
At the species level, the report highlights substantial gains in both the land and the seas, with 400 terrestrial vertebrate species and nearly 200 marine species reaching a protection score of 100 following at least a 10-point increase in the past year. More than 500 terrestrial vertebrate species and more than 50 marine species saw protection score increases greater than 50 points, meaning half of their protection targets were met in the past year. However, as the report highlights, much progress remains to be done, as 20% of all terrestrial vertebrates and 8% of marine fish and mammals still have less than 10% of the coverage they need.
The Species Protection Report was developed by the Map of Life Team at the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change in collaboration with the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Half-Earth Project, GEO BON, Esri, Google, and other partners. The full report, along with detailed country- and species-level protection results, can be found at mol.org/resources/species-report, and an Esri StoryMap version of the report can be found here.
Photo credit: Tz-Hsuan Tseng
This year’s Half-Earth Day, hosted at the Field Museum of Chicago and anchored by actor Harrison Ford as special guest, saw the release of the second-annual Species Protection Report produced in partnership by the Map of Life and the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
The report documents global progress since 2024 in species protection on the land and seas as assessed by the Species Protection Index (SPI), a biodiversity indicator formally adopted by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a component indicator for Target 3 and produced by Map of Life, the flagship initiative of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.
(left) In terrestrial vertebrates, the Species Protection Index (SPI) finally crossed the halfway mark with a 3.1 point increase. A taxonomic breakdown of that score shows that birds and mammals have higher average SPIs while amphibians and reptiles have lower SPIs. (right) Marine SPI rose by 2.3 points to reach 62.1 in 2025, with fish reaching a similar average SPI and mammals rising ten points above the SPI.
According to the report, global protection of terrestrial vertebrates increased 6% from last year, with the SPI rising from 47.8 to 50.9 points out of one hundred. Marine fish and mammal protection also rose nearly 4%, with the SPI rising from 59.8 to 62.1 out of one hundred. These increases follow an additional 0.7% of land area and 1.4% of marine area gaining protected status in the past year, thanks to both newly-established or newly-recognized and reported protected areas and other effective conservation measures.
“These results deliver some much-needed good news for species in some parts of the world”, says Walter Jetz, Director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change and Map of Life Lead. ”The report shows how smart conservation planning can deliver outsized biodiversity benefits and how science-driven metrics are key to guiding effective actions to stem the tide of species extinctions”.
National 2025 terrestrial vertebrate SPI. Black outlines indicate subregions and thick white outlines indicate the country with the highest national SPI in their subregion.
For tens of thousands of species, the SPI measures how adequately protected area networks represent the habitats they need most. Each species receives its own protection score, measuring how close it is to reaching its target habitat protection coverage on a scale of 0 to 100. These individual scores are aggregated up to the national scale to reveal how well each country is meeting these overall biodiversity protection goals.
(Left) The Oman anemonefish (Amphiprion omanensis) experienced an 86-point increase in its protection score in the past year. Photo credit: © cmarmotte via iNaturalist. (Right) The Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion thamnobates), one of the species featured in the report, is an endangered species endemic to South Africa. Despite global SPI increases, this species is still largely unprotected with a protection score of just 4 out of 100. Photo credit: © Gus Benson via iNaturalist.
The 2025 SPI includes 34,000 terrestrial vertebrate species, 13,000 marine fish and vertebrate species, and, for the first time, 45,000 tree species.
On land, European and African countries tend to have the highest SPIs: for example, Botswana has reached a terrestrial vertebrate SPI of 94 and Poland has reached the highest possible SPI of 100, meaning all assessed species have adequate coverage. For trees, Latin American countries also stand high on the SPI spectrum alongside many European and African countries, with Venezuela for example reaching 95. In the seas, Western and Northern Europe, Micronesia, and Australia lead the pack, with several nations and territories achieving very high SPI, including Palau, New Caledonia, and the Seychelles.
The report highlights countries that saw the largest gains in species protection in the last year, including Oman, which achieved a 30-point increase in terrestrial vertebrate SPI and a 79-point increase in marine SPI in the past year. These conservation efforts have improved the protection scores of numerous Arabian species, such as the Oman anemonefish (Amphiprion omanensis) and the Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia).
At the species level, the report highlights substantial gains in both the land and the seas, with 400 terrestrial vertebrate species and nearly 200 marine species reaching a protection score of 100 following at least a 10-point increase in the past year. More than 500 terrestrial vertebrate species and more than 50 marine species saw protection score increases greater than 50 points, meaning half of their protection targets were met in the past year. However, as the report highlights, much progress remains to be done, as 20% of all terrestrial vertebrates and 8% of marine fish and mammals still have less than 10% of the coverage they need.
The Species Protection Report was developed by the Map of Life Team at the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change in collaboration with the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Half-Earth Project, GEO BON, Esri, Google, and other partners. The full report, along with detailed country- and species-level protection results, can be found at mol.org/resources/species-report, and an Esri StoryMap version of the report can be found here.
