Focal Area: Status and trends of the components of biodiversity

Headline Indictor: Coverage of protected areas

Key Indicator Partner:      

Indicator Partners:

Data Available: Global time series, 1872 onwards

Development Status: Ready for global use

The protected area overlays indicator helps to track progress in the establishment of a comprehensive protected area network. Protected areas can provide multiple benefits for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. They are widely recognized as a major tool for the conservation of species and ecosystems. The biodiversity they protect provides a range of goods and services essential to human wellbeing. They also help to safeguard natural resources and areas of cultural importance that local communities and indigenous peoples depend on.

The global protected area system does not yet cover a representative sample of the world’s biodiversity, nor is it effectively targeted at the most important sites for biodiversity. Therefore, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) targets call for the effective conservation of at least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions by 2010 on land and by 2012 in the seas, and for the protection of areas of particular importance to biodiversity. This indicator measures progress towards these CBD targets.

The protected area overlays indicator is currently made up of a composite of three sub indicators that together help to measure progress towards the CBD targets: 1) the degree of protection of terrestrial and marine ecoregions of the world; 2) the degree of protection of Important Bird Areas (IBAs); and 3) the degree of protection of Alliance for Zero Extinction sites (AZEs). IBAs and AZEs are two types of key biodiversity areas, i.e. site-scale priorities for biodiversity conservation, for which global data is available.

The sub indicators are calculated based on overlays of ecoregions, IBAs and AZEs with all the nationally designated protected areas recorded in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) whose extent is known. The WDPA is the most comprehensive global spatial dataset on marine and terrestrial protected areas available. The methodology used to create a global protected areas layer from the WDPA follows the one used to calculate the protected area coverage indicator.

The indicator can be used to assess the status of protection, or trends in protection over time. It can be widely applied at various scales to measure policy response to biodiversity loss. UNEP-WCMC is working closely with the Alliance for Zero Extinction, BirdLife International and Conservation International to further improve the datasets and methodology used to calculate the IBA and AZE Protection Indices. UNEP-WCMC is also working with the World Wildlife Fund to analyze the degree of protection of the world’s rivers.

The Ecoregion Protection Indicator can be aggregated into protected area coverage of terrestrial biomes, marine provinces and biogeographic realms, and disaggregated at the regional and national level. The IBA and AZE Protection Indices can also be disaggregated in different ways to reveal underlying patterns in the degree of protection.

Protection of the world's terrestrial ecoregions in 2009.

The map shows the protected area coverage of 821 ecoregions (white areas indicate rock and ice).

Source: UNEP-WCMC

A range of figures will be available for the IBA and AZE Protection Indices and their disaggregations once the analyses have been completed. 

The three sub indicators that currently make up this indicator help to measure how well the planet’s biodiversity is covered by protected areas. The Ecoregion Protection Indicator measures progress towards the CBD target to effectively conserve at least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions by 2010. It indicates how many of the world’s ecoregions meet the 10% target and/or by how much their protection exceeds or falls short of the target. The IBA and AZE Protection Indices measure progress towards the CBD target to protect areas of particular importance to biodiversity. They indicate progress over time in protecting IBAs and AZEs, and which IBAs and AZEs are protected or unprotected. This indicator is complemented by other protected area indicators that measure how well the world’s nations and regions are covered by protected areas, and how well protected areas are managed.

‘Overlays of protected areas with biodiversity show that important areas for the world’s biodiversity are not yet adequately protected although 12.2% of the planet’s total land area and nearly 1% of the planet’s total sea area has been protected to date. In 2009, only half the world’s 821 terrestrial ecoregions and less than 20% of the world’s 232 marine ecoregions had more than 10% of their area under protection, a target set by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Nearly 10% of the terrestrial ecoregions and 50% of the marine ecoregions still have less than 1% protection, indicating significant gaps in the protection of large areas that contain distinctive biodiversity.

By 2007, 35% of 561 AZEs and 26% of 10,993 IBAs were completely covered by protected areas, compared to 25% and 19% in 1990. AZEs and IBAs are two types of key biodiversity areas, i.e. site-scale priorities for biodiversity conservation, for which global data is available. Protecting all AZEs and IBAs would significantly contribute to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s target to protect areas of particular importance to biodiversity; however, more than two thirds of these sites are still unprotected or only partially protected.’

Protected area overlays are not only a global indicator but can also be calculated for regions and nations provided that there are sufficient data available. The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University calculates for example an indicator that measures the degree to which countries achieve the target of protecting at least 10% of each terrestrial biome within their borders.

The 2010 BIP has published some guidance for national and regional use of the protected areas overlay indicator. This guidance is available on the 2010 BIP webpage for this indicator. For more information about national and regional use of the protected area overlays indicator, contact Bastian Bomhard at UNEP-WCMC (bastian.bomhard@unep-wcmc.org).

The datasets and methodology used to calculate this indicator will continue to evolve. Improvements in data coverage and quality in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and the data on ecoregions, IBAs and AZEs result in improved indicator quality. An update of the 2004 analysis that led to the initial identification of AZEs is underway. Gaps and/or time lags in reporting protected area data to the WDPA need to be addressed in order to reduce differences in globally and regionally/nationally derived indicator values.