Presidential Documents

93141 

Federal Register 

Vol. 89, No. 228 

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 

Title 3— 

The President 

Proclamation 10861 of November 17, 2024 

International Conservation Day, 2024 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

Today, I am proud to become the first sitting American President to visit 

the Amazon and to proclaim the first International Conservation Day, reflecting all that is at stake in the fight against climate change and honoring 

the power and promise of conservation work. On International Conservation 

Day, we recommit to working with partners across our Nation and around 

the world to safeguard our natural treasures. 

When we work together to defend our lands and waters, everyone benefits. 

That is because conservation is about more than protecting our world’s 

beautiful natural wonders—it is about protecting the livelihoods of the people 

who depend on them; preserving our diverse habitats and the wildlife that 

lives within them; increasing resiliency throughout our lands, seascapes, 

and riverscapes; and ensuring our lands and waters can be enjoyed by 

all. 

That is why my Administration has delivered on the most ambitious land 

and water conservation agenda in American history—leading by the power 

of our example. When I first came into office, I issued an Executive Order 

that established the United States’ first-ever conservation goal—aiming to 

protect at least 30 percent of our Nation’s lands and waters by 2030. My 

America the Beautiful initiative has advanced that work by supporting voluntary, locally led conservation and restoration. These efforts have not only 

helped local communities, Tribes, farmers, ranchers, foresters, and fishers 

to address the climate crisis and protect lands and waters. They have also 

created jobs, strengthened the economy, and expanded access to the outdoors 

across our country. I also signed an Executive Order to safeguard and steward 

our Nation’s forests and make our ecosystems more resilient in the fight 

against climate change. And we launched the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge to protect, restore, and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands 

and 100,000 miles of our Nation’s rivers and streams to safeguard clean 

water for all. 

I am also proud that my Administration made the largest investment in 

history to confront the climate crisis through my Inflation Reduction Act 

and has conserved more than 45 million acres of our Nation’s lands and 

waters. We have established, expanded, and restored 11 national monuments 

and protected the United States Arctic Ocean from new oil and gas leasing. 

And together with my Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have invested in 

restoration and conservation, including $50 billion to strengthen community 

and ecosystem resilience to climate change. Further, I launched the American 

Climate Corps to mobilize a new, diverse generation of Americans in conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, 

deploying clean energy, and advancing environmental justice—all while creating good jobs. 

Around the world, my Administration has made extraordinary progress in 

advancing conservation. We moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on day 

one of my Administration, and we put our country in a position to cut 

emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. In 2021, at the 

United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, we released 


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the Plan to Conserve Global Forests—a first-of-its-kind national strategy to 

preserve global ecosystems that serve as vital carbon sinks. We also joined 

other nations in pledging to end deforestation by 2030, backed by the biggest 

ever commitment of public funds for forest conservation and a plan to 

make 75 percent of forest commodity supply chains sustainable. In 2022, 

we helped rally countries around the world to commit to conserve at least 

30 percent of lands and waters by 2030, mirroring the goal we had set 

at home. We also joined other countries at the United Nations to sign 

the High Seas Treaty, committing to working together to establish marine 

protected areas on the high seas—a critical step to conserve ocean biodiversity 

and reach the global community’s goal to conserve or protect at least 30 

percent of the ocean by 2030. 

My Administration has also delivered record climate financing to support 

developing countries’ efforts to preserve and protect these vital ecosystems 

that serve as critical carbon sinks, accelerate the clean energy transition, 

and bolster their resilience to climate change. In 2021, I pledged that our 

Nation would deliver $11 billion per year in climate financing by 2024. 

I am proud that we not only kept that promise, but surpassed it. This 

includes fulfilling my pledge to invest over $3 billion per year to help 

vulnerable countries around the world mitigate and adapt to climate change 

as part of my Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience. I am also 

proud that—with our recent $50 million investment—my Administration 

has provided over $100 million to the Amazon Fund. At the same time, 

our Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has helped mobilize over $1 

billion in investment to support the restoration of degraded lands in Brazil, 

Uruguay, and Chile, helping create a market that values keeping this vital 

ecosystem alive and thriving. 

There is still so much to do to ensure that we protect our world’s most 

precious ecosystems and natural treasures. That is why the DFC is investing 

in one of the largest reforestation projects in the world, beginning with 

the Brazilian Amazon. I am proud that my Administration is working with 

over a dozen international partners to launch the Brazil Restoration and 

Bioeconomy Finance Coalition to mobilize at least $10 billion for land 

restoration and bioeconomy-related projects by 2030. And I am proud to 

support President Lula of Brazil’s bold vision of creating the Tropical Forest 

Forever Facility, a path-breaking new initiative that would incentivize countries to protect their tropical forests while supporting the local and Indigenous 

communities stewarding these forests and ensuring these vital ecosystems 

continue to thrive. 

It has been said that the Amazon rainforest is the lungs of the world. 

Forests like these, that stretch across the Americas, Africa, and Asia—including the Amazon, Tongass, Congo, and Sundaland—represent our heart and 

soul. Now more than ever, we must recommit to the urgent work of addressing 

climate change—together, we can ensure that these treasures will be enjoyed 

for generations to come. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 17, 2024, 

as International Conservation Day. 


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IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth 

day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and 

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 

and forty-ninth. 

[FR Doc. 2024–27849 

Filed 11–25–24; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3395–F4–P 


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