GLAND: The international community has made major progress towards the global target on protected and conserved area coverage, but has fallen far short on its commitments on the quality of these areas, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), produced with support from the National Geographic Society.
“The latest edition of the biennial Protected Planet Report is the final report card on Aichi Target 11 – the global 10-year target on protected and conserved areas which aimed to bring important benefits to both biodiversity and people by 2020. Aichi Target 11 included the aim of protecting at least 17% of land and inland waters and 10% of the marine environment,” according to IUCN press release issued today.
Today, 22.5 million km2 (16.64%) of land and inland water ecosystems and 28.1 million km2 (7.74%) of coastal waters and the ocean are within documented protected and conserved areas, an increase of over 21 million km2 (42% of the current coverage) since 2010, the new report reveals. It is clear that coverage on land will considerably exceed the 17% target when data for all areas are made available, as many protected and conserved areas remain unreported.
The post-2020 global biodiversity framework is due to be agreed at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) in Kunming, China, in October and is anticipated to include the ambition to scale up coverage and effectiveness of protected and conserved areas. The Protected Planet Report concludes that the challenge will be to improve the quality of both existing and new areas to achieve positive change for people and nature, as biodiversity continues to decline, even within many protected areas. The IUCN Green List Standard is the only global measure of an overall change in quality.