; (2) providing cleaner drinking water; (3) reducing air pollution; (4) being a source of new medicines; (5) reducing local rates of infectious diseases and broader risk of zoonotic spillover that can contribute to pandemics; and (6) supporting pollinators and other beneficial species for food production, globally valued at up to more than five hundred billion dollars; Whereas access to nature ensures cultural and spiritual enrichment, as well as physical and mental health benefits; Whereas all life depends on essential ecosystems, and, therefore, damaging or erasing them can have a profound impact on biodiversity and human health and well-being; Whereas inequitable policies have led to a targeted denuding of biodiversity in communities of color, low-income communities, and Tribal communities, creating great harm and preventing these communities from having equal access to the benefits of biodiversity; Whereas the degradation and destruction of natural habitat is the primary cause of biological diversity loss at every level; Whereas only by the preservation and conservation of substantial, more natural, intact habitat than previously envisioned can human-driven extinctions be eliminated; Whereas the late American biologist E.O. Wilson estimated that protecting half of the Earth’s surface would ensure the sustainable persistence of 85 percent of the planet’s species, and with it, global biodiversity; Whereas the conservation science community has developed robust tools to inform the identification of natural habitats that provide the best opportunity to safeguard species; Whereas area-based conservation goals are key to averting biodiversity loss and can be achieved through collaborative efforts, including— (1) public-private partnerships, which play a notable role in conservation within the United States and around the world; (2) stewardship of local communities on the ground and indigenous peoples, honoring their rights to lands, territories, and resources; and (3) international cooperation