Protected and conserved areas are the foundation for conserving biodiversity.

## To date, %16.65 of land and %7.74 of marine areas are reported as protected and conserved areas worldwide, a remarkable achievement, given that 42 percent of these areas – more than 21 million square kilometers – has been added just in the last decade.

## Indigenous people are estimated to hold at least 32% (WWF et al., 2021) and as much as 65% of the world’s land and inland water under customary systems, but recognition of their rights to that land have been recognized by governments for only a small fraction of those lands (Rights and Resources Initiative, 2015)

Protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation that provide co-benefits for achievement of the SDGs, in support of a nature-positive future. This report presents the global status of PAs and OECMs and opportunities for action, focusing on coverage and quality elements of effective management and equitable governance. Recognition is given to Indigenous Peoples' territories and the need to secure tenure rights, as well as embed PAs and OECMs into national policies and frameworks.

## It is estimated that one million species are threatened with extinction, with the drivers of biodiversity loss due to the direct or indirect results of unsustainable human action. Under current policies, one in six species will be at risk of extinction due to the impacts of climate change.

## Around 75% of global food crops rely to some extent on pollinators for growth, crop quality or seed production (Klein et al., 2007) and our reliance on pollinators has increased by 300% in the last 50 years (Smith et al., 2015). A continued loss of pollinators could reduce global supplies of fruit by 22.9%, vegetables by 16.3%, and nuts and seeds by 22.1% in a worst-case scenario (Smith et al., 2015).

## Biodiversity loss can also directly affect food supplies to the 5-8 million people in South America who regularly rely on wild meat for protein (Rushton et al., 2005) and rural regions in West and Central Africa where wild meat contributes 80-90% of animal protein (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997, Pearce, 2005).
## Finally, ecosystem degradation is also reducing the productivity of around one-fifth of vegetated Earth, resulting in 1.3 billion people living on degrading agricultural land (UNCCD, 2017).

Global biodiversity loss is inextricably linked to climate change. Under all emission scenarios, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report finds that global surface temperature will continue increasing until at least mid-century, with warming of 1.5–2°C exceeded during this century and climate impacts threatening species and their habitats, unless there is a rapid and significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Transformative change is urgently needed if we are to combat both biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. The time to act is now.
Investing in protected and conserved areas is investing in our future

Investing in effective protected and conserved areas is an essential tool for achieving the protection of nature, through biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. In our Creating a Nature-Positive Future report we present a path to enhance protected and conserved areas coverage and quality to secure global nature, with multiple co-benefits for people.

The report builds on the findings of the Protected Planet Report 2020, summarising progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Target 11.

## Currently, protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), also known as protected and conserved areas, cover 16.79% of non-Antarctic land and 8.0% of the ocean, with 43.7% of terrestrial ecoregions and 47.4% of marine ecoregions having some level of coverage.
## Protected and conserved areas provide essential protection of Key Biodiversity Areas and Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas, with 43.3% and 8.3% global coverage respectively.

Recent political and financial commitment to expand the coverage and quality of protected and conserved areas could be transformative. The benefits extend beyond biodiversity conservation to support achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals through improved water and food security, livelihoods, health, climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as goals under other Multilateral Environmental Agreements, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: