In October 2024, UNEP-WCMC and IUCN proudly launched the Protected Planet Report 2024, providing a stocktake of protected and conserved areas across the world’s lands and waters.

This landmark edition of the biennial series presented the first official evaluation of global progress towards Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), a historic agreement paving the way to a future where nature and people co-exist in harmony.

Target 3 focuses on safeguarding biodiversity through an effective network of protected and conserved areas, covering 30 per cent of terrestrial, marine and freshwater spaces globally by 2030. However, coverage alone is not sufficient – an effective network also requires focussing on the quality of these areas. To be effective, these areas must be equitably governed, effectively managed, and strategically placed in the most important and representative spaces for biodiversity and ecosystem services. They must also be established and recognized in a way that respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

The current global state of protected and conserved areas

The Protected Planet initiative brings together data reported by the world’s governments, international convention secretariats, Indigenous Peoples and other stakeholders on protected and conserved areas. The Protected Planet Report 2024 assessed each element of Target 3 and demonstrated that, while some progress has been made, efforts must be accelerated for Target 3 to be successfully met by 2030. 

Updated global coverage statistics are reported by Protected Planet each month. As of March 2025, the data shows that 17.54 per cent of land and inland water areas are currently protected or conserved, as well as 8.45 per cent of marine areas.

But how do these areas fare in relation to the quality elements of Target 3? Let’s take a closer look at what is meant by quality, how it can be tracked at the global scale, and why it matters for conservation.

Locations important for biodiversity

Protected and conserved areas play a critical role in halting global biodiversity loss and can have the greatest impact when established or recognized in important areas for biodiversity.

A widely used approach to recognizing important spaces for nature globally is the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) standard. There are over 16,500 areas mapped within the World Database of KBAs, covering more than 22 million km², or 4.3 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Important areas are also identified through other processes at national, regional and global scales.

Prioritizing protection of KBAs and other important spaces for biodiversity can focus available resources on priority areas, including for threatened and vulnerable species and habitats. Yet the Protected Planet Report revealed that while two-thirds of KBAs are protected or conserved to some extent, almost one-third lack any form of protection at all. Conservation efforts must therefore be scaled up to prioritize these spaces.

Locations that safeguard ecosystem services and functions

Protected and conserved areas can also safeguard the vital benefits nature provides to people. Known as ecosystem services, these benefits – for example, carbon sequestration, freshwater sources and cultural locations – are essential for our well-being and livelihoods.

For the first time, the Protected Planet Report 2024 assessed global coverage of critical areas for five ecosystem services by protected and conserved areas. These critical spaces were estimated to cover around half of Earth’s surface (53-63 per cent); however, the report revealed that less than one fifth of the area is currently protected.

Given the vast expanse of land and water considered important for ecosystem services, the role of protected and conserved areas to sustain ecosystem services will need to be complemented by wider sustainable management practices across landscapes and seascapes, to ensure the persistence of nature’s benefits to people.

Locations that are representative of biogeographic regions and species

To effectively conserve the huge diversity of life on Earth, protected and conserved areas must be established and recognized in areas that are representative of the world’s full array of species, ecosystems and biogeographic regions.

For the Protected Planet Report, coverage of biogeographic regions was measured at the ecoregion level. These are areas of land or water that contain similar, geographically distinct assemblages of biodiversity.

The Protected Planet Report highlights that approximately one in four ecoregions have more than 30 per cent protection. However, many still lack adequate protection, and greater focus is needed on achieving ecological representativeness, as outlined in Target 3.

Connecting the network

Looking beyond individual protected and conserved areas, another key consideration is that of connectivity between these areas and with the surrounding land and seascape. Creating a well-connected network of protected and conserved areas can facilitate species movements, support the flow of genetic diversity and sustain resilient ecosystems and ecosystem services. This is increasingly crucial in the face of a changing climate.

However, measuring connectivity is complex. There are several factors that can be considered, including the physical features of landscapes and how populations of species move across them. Several metrics have been developed to measure connectivity on land, but there remain significant gaps in understanding of connectivity in marine and inland water systems.

The Protected Planet Report reveals that currently only 8.5 per cent of land is both connected and protected. Connectivity therefore represents a significant shortfall in global progress towards Target 3.

The question of effectiveness

The success of protected and conserved areas does not only depend on where they are placed, or how they are connected. A fundamental issue highlighted in the KMGBF, and emphasized in the Protected Planet Report, is the importance of ensuring that these areas are effectively designed, managed and governed in order to successfully conserve the biodiversity and other values for which they were recognized.

There are many site-level tools available to assess the quality of management and governance. However, the Protected Planet Report shows that only 6.8 per cent of protected areas have reported such assessments. Furthermore, the data reported does not provide insights into whether sites are achieving positive conservation outcomes.

To gain a clearer understanding of global progress towards this element of Target 3, a key focus for the Protected Planet initiative going forward will be the development of a system that gathers more comprehensive information on the quality of governance and management and the achievement of outcomes.

Achieving just and fair conservation

It is also essential that protected and conserved areas are governed equitably – in other words, with recognition of and respect for the rights, knowledge systems and needs of a wide range of actors. Governance processes must also effectively engage all relevant stakeholders, especially Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women, in decision-making, and ensure that costs and benefits are fairly shared.

Various tools have been developed to assess the quality of governance and identify weaknesses, opportunities and actions for improvement of individual sites. However, only a very small proportion of areas have reported that they have conducted assessments.

Another basic indicator of equitable governance across the network of protected and conserved areas is the diversity of governance types. However, here again there is much room for improvement. Most sites are reported under the governance of national governments, with limited recognition of non-state governance. Only 3.95 per cent of the total global coverage of protected and conserved areas is reported as being governed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, 0.5 per cent is under private governance and 11.84 per cent is under shared governance.

Recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories

A crucial element of Target 3, and of the KMGBF as a whole, is the recognition of the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity and partners in its conservation.

The contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity have long been overlooked and undervalued. They also often lack formal recognition and rights to land, waters and resources, which creates insecurity over their territories and undermines their human rights.

The Protected Planet Report estimates that when combining Indigenous and traditional territories alongside protected and conserved areas, global coverage of land and inland water areas under protected, conserved or Indigenous and traditional management is at least 31.2 per cent. This demonstrates the vital contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities towards global area-based conservation efforts and shows how they could contribute to Target 3, if they were appropriately recognised with their consent. However, it also highlights the extent of Indigenous and traditional territories that lack formal recognition and may need greater support.

Clearly, there remains much to be done if we are to successfully reach the ambitions of Target 3 of the KMGBF by 2030, particularly in terms of the quality of protected and conserved areas. We must not shy away from these challenges; instead, we must recognize the progress already achieved and on which we can build towards greater action on both coverage and quality of the world’s protected and conserved areas.

Read the full Protected Planet Report 2024 here. Thanks to all those who contributed to the report.

Main image: Mount Moran, Grand Teton National Park, USA. Photo by Adobe Stock.