Wildlife need room to roam. It's time to rethink conservation at scale. | Jodi Hilty | TEDxBoston

Description

Fitted with one of the first satellite collars, a wild wolf named Ploy trekked 100,000 kilometers before being legally shot just outside a national park boundary. Her journey proved that national parks are essential, precious, but nowhere near big enough. When a bold proposal emerged to protect an area three times the size of California across national and international borders, it seemed far-fetched. How could you coordinate and cooperate at that scale? The Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) project is proving what's possible, growing its protected areas by more than 80% over 30 years through the work of more than 800 partners. And that's just the beginning. Jodi Hilty is President and Chief Scientist of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, which works to connect and protect wildlife habitat across a 3,200-kilometer corridor spanning Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon. She holds a PhD in ecology and has spent more than 25 years working on large landscape conservation across North America, co-authoring the landmark textbook Corridor Ecology. She serves on the Science Advisory Panel for the 30x30 global conservation target and has worked closely with First Nations and Indigenous governments, ranchers, state and provincial transportation agencies, and more than 800 partner organizations to grow protected areas in the Y2Y region by more than 80% since 1993. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx