Protected Planet Report 2020:
The report, titled Protected Planet Report 2020, underlined the progress the world has made toward the ambitious goals agreed by countries in 2010 at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
- The reports are released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with support from the National Geographic Society, a global non-profit.
- These are biennial landmark publications that assess the state of protected and conserved areas around the world.
- The report is the first in the series to include data on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) in addition to protected areas.
- OECM are a conservation designation for areas that are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas.
- The 2020 edition provides the final report on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, and looks to the future as the world prepares to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
- Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 aimed to conserve 17% of land and inland water ecosystems and 10% of its coastal waters and oceans by 2020.
Findings of the Report:
- Increase in Protected Area:
- As many as 82% of countries and territories have increased their share of protected area and coverage of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) since 2010.
- Protected areas covering almost 21 million km2 have been added to the global network.
- Increase in OECMs:
- Since OECMs were first recorded in 2019, these areas have added a further 1.6 million km2 to the global network.
- Despite being limited to only five countries and territories, the available data on OECMs show that they make a significant contribution to coverage and connectivity.
- Of the area now covered by protected areas and OECMs, 42% was added in the past decade.
- Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs):
- KBAs are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.
- On an average, 62.6% of KBA either fully or partially overlap with protected areas and OECMs.
- The average percentage of each KBA within protected areas and OECMs is 43.2% for terrestrial; 42.2% for inland water and 44.2% for marine (within national waters).
- There was an increase of 5 percentage points or less in each case since 2010, the greatest growth in marine and coastal areas.
