Thu, Oct 18, 2012
More Investment in Protected Areas Vital
to Supporting Biodiversity, Livelihoods
and Local Economies
Protected areas are being managed in a more
equitable way, with a greater role for indigenous
communities. But current investment in protected
areas is only around half of what is needed
to support endangered species, protect threatened
habitats and deliver the full benefits that
sustainably-managed protected areas can
deliver.
Further Resources
Protected Planet Report 2012: Tracking progress
towards global targets for protected areasProtected
Planet WebsiteUNEP and Ecosystem ManagementUNEP
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)These
are among the main findings of a report
from the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) that tracks progress towards internationally-agreed
targets on the world's protected areas.
The report was presented
today at the 11th Conference of the Parties
to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
(CDB COP 11) in Hyderabad, India. The study
received the the official backing of countries
at COP 11 this week as a major contribution
towards tracking progress on global efforts
to increase protected areas.
Two years ago countries
set a goal under the CBD that by 2020, at
least 17 per cent of the world's terrestrial
areas and 10 per cent of marine areas would
be equitably managed and conserved.
The Protected Planet
Report 2012 says that protected areas have
increased in number by almost 60 per cent,
and in area by just under 50 per cent, since
11000. But the study states that poor management,
under-funding and a lack of critical data
on protected areas mean that the world is
making insufficient progress towards the
2020 goals.
Produced by UNEP's World
Conversation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) in
partnership with the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the
study is the first in an annual series that
will monitor global efforts to support and
expand protected areas.
"Protected areas
contain some 15 per cent of the world's
carbon stock and support the livelihoods
of over one billion people, making them
a crucial factor in supporting biodiversity,
ecosystem services and human livelihoods,"
said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP
Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"This new report
provides not only the fact and figures required
by decision-makers, but outlines ways to
overcome fundamental challenges in the management
of protected areas. It highlights the key
actions required to meet international goals,
and to harness the multiple economic and
environmental benefits that sustainably
managed protected areas can provide,"
added Mr. Steiner.
Global Protected Area
Coverage
According to the most
recent figures, just over 12 per cent of
the world's terrestrial areas are thought
to be protected today.
To meet the CBD target
of 17 per cent, an additional 6 million
square kilometres of land and inland waters
would have to be recognized as protected
by world governments - an area more than
twice the size of Argentina.
Marine protected areas
are lagging even further behind. Around
1.6 per cent of the global ocean area is
protected, mostly in near-coastal areas.
To meet the CBD target of 10 percent, an
additional 8 million square kilometres of
marine and coastal areas would need to be
recognized as protected - an area just over
the size of Australia. However, the UNEP
study states that the number of very large
marine protected areas (MPAs) has grown
significantly in recent years. Today, there
are over 13 MPAs each with an area greater
than 100,000 square kilometres. Overall,
marine protected area coverage has increased
by over 150 percent since 2003.
Coverage of Biodiversity
- Are Protected Areas in the Right Place?
The UNEP study uses
a number of indicators to asses the location
of exisiting protected areas. These include
'ecoregions' (large areas with characteristic
combinations of species distinct from adjcent
areas) and other internationally-recognized
biodiversity zones, such as Important Bird
Areas.
The study finds that
the global protected area network does not
yet provide adequate coverage of the world's
terrestrial ecoegions. Latest figures show
that half of the world's key ecoregions
only have 10 per cent of their area protected.
A further 10 per cent of global ecoregions
have less than 1 per cent of their area
protected, suggesting critical gaps in biodiversity
protection.
Only 13 percent of the
world's marine ecoregions meet the CBD's
10 per cent coverage target. The UNEP study
says that a dramatic acceleration in the
creation or expanasion of marine protect
areas is needed to cover strategic sites
and reduce biodiversity gaps.
The number of Important
Bird Areas completely covered by protected
areas has risen to 28 percent, yet just
under half had no coverage at all.
This could have significant
impacts on efforts to reduce the loss of
species and habitats:
In Australia, 13 per
cent of all threatened species and 21 per
cent of critically endangered species are
not covered by any protected area
In Africa, around 26
per cent of threatened bird species are
not covered by any proected area
Global datasets for
Important Bird Areas and other key diversity
sites have only become available in the
last ten years. More effort is needed, says
the UNEP study, to ensure that decision-makers
have access to updated data on the location
of marine and terrestrial ecoregions.
The UNEP report says
that the ecological performance of protected
areas also remains poorly understood. Further
studies are needed to anaylze the impacts
of protected areas on species, ecosystems
and genetic resources. This will also require
improved, comprehensive datasets on protected
areas, and on biodiversity trends outside
protected zones.
Management and Governance
- Key Challenges
From small nature reserves
to large national parks, all protected areas
require effective management to achieve
their objectives. Countries have also committed
to managing protected areas in a more equitable
way, where indigenous communities, civil
society and other non-government bodies
play an active role.
According to a 2010
study, less than a third of the world's
protected areas have a management plan in
place, and only a quarter of all protected
areas have been judged to have 'sound management'.
Lack of funding, facilities and equipment,
staff shortages and limited interaction
with local communities are among the main
barriers to effective management.
In order to encourage
effective management and more regular assessments,
IUCN is working to develop a 'Green List'
of well-managed marine and terrestrial protected
areas.
In terms of adopting
more inclusive approaches to managing protected
areas, the UNEP report highlights several
positive trends. From 11000 to 2000, the
total protected area managed by non-governmental
bodies, or under co-management, increased
from about 4 per cent to 23 per cent.
In the Pacific Islands,
the number of locally managed marine areas
has risen from 4 to 419 between 2000 and
2009.
UNEP-WCMC and partners
have recently started working on a global
registry of forests, wetlands, landscapes,
village lakes, rivers and other habitats
that are managed by local and/or indigenous
communities (www.iccaregistry.org). The
aim is to highlight case studies and successful
techniques that can improve the equitable
management of protected areas worldwide.
Financing
Protected areas play a vital economic role
through the valuable ecosystem services
they provide, such as supplying clean water
to local communities and promoting eco-tourism,
among others. Previous UNEP studies have
shown that the overall economic benefits
of protected areas greatly exceed the cost
of managing them.
However, the global
funding shortfall for protected areas currently
runs into billions of US dollars. In Africa,
for example, the effective management of
10 per cent of all ecoregions would cost
around US$630 million per year, approximately
double the current protected areas spending
for the continent. In Latin America and
the Caribbean, the funding shortfall is
as much as 64 per cent of the estimated
annual cost for managing protected areas.
The UNEP report recommends
that protected areas further develop alternative
revenue streams, such as tourist fees, private
sector funding, and payment for ecosystem
services.
Changing current government
spending practices on the environment also
has significant potential for biodiversity
conservation. A terrestrial protected areas
system covering 17 per cent of global land
area (the 2020 target), could be established
and managed at a fraction of the current
amount spent by governments on environmentally-harmful
subsidies, according to a 2009 study.
Priority Actions
The UNEP report recommends the following
key steps to ensure that the 2020 targets
on protected areas can be met:
Accelerate the strategic expansion of the
protected area network, and increase coverage
of ecoregions and other important biodiversity
sites
Improve understanding of the benefits of
protected areas in supporting biodiversity
and ecosystem services
Expand management effective assessments
of protected areas
Strengthen involvement of local communities
Secure sustainable funding for protected
areas
To improve data on protected
areas, enhance national reporting to existing
datasets, such as the World Database on
Protected Areas, managed by UNEP-WCMC
Notes to Editors
The full publication,
Protected Planet Report 2012: Tracking progress
towards global targets for protected areas,
is available at http://www.unep-wcmc.org/ppr2012_903.html
The next edition of
the report will be published in 2014.
To improve the availability
of global data on protected areas, UNEP-WCMC
launched in 2010 an interactive website
ProtectedPlanet.net. The web interface of
the World Database on Protected Areas, the
site includes satellite images of protected
areas and information on endangered species,
native plant life or types of terrain. Visitors
and managers can also upload photographs
and other content to the site. To date,
the site has received over 1.8 million hits,
registered over 10,500 users and covers
protected areas from 93 countries. Visit:
www.protectedplanet.net
