The World Now Protects 15% of Its Land, but Crucial Biodiversity
Zones Left Out
·
Close to 15% of the Earth's land and 10% of its territorial waters are covered by national parks and other protected areas.
·
Coverage of marine protected areas increased by almost 300% in the last decade.
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Eight in 10 key biodiversity areas worldwide lack complete protection.
2 September 2016 – With 14.7 per cent of the Earth's land and 10 per cent
of its territorial waters under protection, the world is on track to meet a
major global conservation target, according to a new report by UN Environment
and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), launched
today at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaiʻi.
But the
2016 Protected Planet report also shows that crucial biodiversity
areas are being left out, key species and habitats are underrepresented
and inadequate management is limiting the effectiveness of protected
areas.
"The
huge gains in the number and size of protected areas made in the last
decade have to be matched by improvements in their quality," said
UN Environment Head Erik Solheim.
"The
world needs to do more to effectively protect our most biologically
diverse spaces. Protected areas need to be better connected, to allow
populations
of animals and plants to mix and spread. Also important is ensuring
local communities are involved in protection efforts. Their support is
fundamental to long-term conservation."
"Today,
the world is facing critical environmental and societal challenges,
such as climate change, food and water security," said
IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. "Protected areas
play a major role in conserving species and ecosystems that help us
confront these challenges. Ensuring that they are carefully mapped and
effectively managed is crucial if we want to continue
to prosper on this planet."
According
to scientists at IUCN and UN Environment's World Conservation
Monitoring Centre, there are 202,467 protected areas today,
covering almost 20 million square kilometres or 14.7 per cent of the
world’s land, excluding Antarctica. That falls just short of the 17 per
cent target set for 2020 by the Convention on Biological Diversity under
the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
Land coverage of protected areas has decreased by 0.7 per cent since the last
Protected Planet report. Scientists attribute the decline to fluxes in data, such as changes in boundaries, removal of some large sites from the World Database on Protected Areas
and improved data quality, rather than an actual decrease in coverage on the ground.
Countries
in Latin America and the Caribbean protect the largest portion of their
land, amounting to nearly 5 million square kilometres.
About half of that is in Brazil, which boasts the world's largest
protected land area system of 2.47 million square kilometres.
Middle East has the lowest land protection rate of around 3 per cent, equal to around 119,000 square kilometres.
The
last decade has seen remarkable progress in protecting the world's
oceans. The size of marine protected areas
has increased from just over 4 million in 2006 to nearly 15 million
square kilometres today, covering four per cent of the Earth's oceans,
an area almost the size of Russia.
But for all the growth in coverage, much remains to be done to improve the quality of protected areas.
Areas of importance for biodiversity
Currently less than 20 per cent of the world's key biodiversity areas are completely covered by protected areas.
Lack of effective management
Less
than 20 per cent of countries have met their commitments to assess the
management of their protected areas, raising questions about the quality
and effectiveness of existing conservation measures.
Protected areas are fundamental for sustainable development
The
report recommends investing in protected areas to strengthen
sustainable management of fisheries, control invasive species, cope with
climate
change and reduce harmful incentives, such as subsidies, which threaten
biodiversity.
Adoption
of these recommendations would help to halt biodiversity loss, improve
food and water security, enable vulnerable human communities to better
cope with natural disasters and conserve traditional knowledge.
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