E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation's Half-Earth Day® at the GEO BON Conference

Half-Earth Day brings together people from around the world and across disciplines to share their unique perspectives on how to achieve the goal of Half-Earth and ensure the health of the planet for future generations.

Half-Earth Day 2023 at the GEO BON conference will focus on how we can link information to action, fostering a conversation on how we can use the best available science to support communities in their understanding and stewardship of biodiversity, and to connect and empower community and stakeholder insights to ensure successful conservation outcomes. Half-Earth Day will commence with lunch, followed by a conversation on the impacts of forest fires and marine heat waves that will set the stage for afternoon panel discussions on the role of science, society, business and policy in supporting better conservation for biodiversity and people. The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Distinguished Lectureship in Biodiversity will cap off the day, with Wade Davis, Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia, providing keynote remarks. A former Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, which named him one of the Explorers for the Millennium, Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.”

Previous Half-Earth Day events have been held in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; the University of California, Berkeley; the American Museum of Natural History in New York; and the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Distinguished thought leaders and conservationists featured have included E.O. Wilson, Johan Rockström, Sir David Attenborough, Razan Al Mubarak, Sally Jewell, Cristián Samper, Tom Friedman, Dawn Wright, Paul Simon, Hansjörg Wyss, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Queen Quet, and others.