Protected Planet Report 2020 by UNEP

The Protected Planet Report 2020 finds that the international community has made major progress towards the global target on protected and conserved area coverage, but has fallen far short on its commitments on the quality of these areas.
The report finds great progress since 2010 with 22.5 million km2 (16.64%) of land and inland water ecosystems and 28.1 million km2 (7.74%) of coastal waters and the ocean within documented protected and conserved areas, an increase of over 21 million km2 (42% of the current coverage) since 2010.
It is clear that coverage on land will considerably exceed the 17% target when data for all areas are made available, as many protected and conserved areas remain unreported.
Yet a third of key biodiversity areas lack any coverage, and less than 8% of land is both protected and connected.
The report also identifies crucial opportunities for further improving the protected and conserved area network under the next set of global nature targets.

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.

It is a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity that has been in force since 1993.
Nearly all countries including India have ratified it (notably, the US has signed but not ratified).
The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and it operates under the United Nations Environment Programme.
A supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (adopted at COP5, 2000) seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) was adopted in Nagoya, Japan at COP10.
The COP-10 also adopted a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity.
- Officially known as “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”, it provided a set of 20 targets, collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.

Protected areas are regions or zones of land or sea which are given certain levels of protection for conservation of biodiversity and socio-environmental values. In these areas, human intervention and exploitation of resources is limited.
India has a network of 903 Protected Areas covering about 5% of its total geographic area.
India has the following kinds of protected areas, in the sense of the word designated by IUCN:
- National Parks, Wildlife sanctuaries, Biosphere reserves, Reserved and protected forests, Conservation reserves and community reserves, Private protected areas.

==================================

Thank You.

All the Best!!!