The ecological representativeness of the global protected areas estate in 2009: progress towards the CBD 2010 target.

• Main Authors: Coad, Lauren, Burgess, Neil David, Loucks, Colby, Fish, Lucy, Scharlemann, Jörn P.W., Duarte, Lisa, Besançon, Charles
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre 2009
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/the-ecological-representativeness-of-the-global-protected-areas-estate-in-2009-progress-towards-the-cbd-2010-target(d035e960-3b2f-11df-ad7f-000ea68e967b).html; http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/docs/Global%20Ecoregion%20Protection%202009.pdf

The Convention on Biological Diversity has established a global target for the protection of 10% of each of the world's ecological regions by 2010. This report uses the WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World and the 2009 version of the World Database of Protected Areas to analyse progress towards achieving this politically established conservation goal across the world. Overall, five of the seven realms (excluding Antarctica), and 11 of the 14 biomes have over 10% protected area coverage. However, only 54% of the WWF terrestrial ecoregions reach the 10% protected area coverage target. Nations are still working to develop their protected area networks and it is likely that further ecoregions will reach the 10% protected area coverage target for terrestrial ecological regions by 2010. Although protection of the Global 200 priority ecoregions is higher than for the total set of ecoregions, with 72 % reaching the 10% target, previous studies have suggested that areas of high biodiversity may require higher levels of protection and conservation planning. The approaching 2010 deadline provides a further opportunity to discuss and assess the effectiveness of the 10% target in affording adequate protection for species and habitats, which needs to be addressed in more detail in the coming year.