In December 2022, nearly 200 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, committing to protect 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. Now, two years into this initiative, a new U.N. report shows both progress and challenges ahead. The “Protected Planet Report 2024,” released this week by the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), reveals that 17.6% of terrestrial and 8.4% of marine areas are now protected. The report comes as countries gather in Cali, Colombia, for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16). There, nations are wrestling with how to turn global conservation targets into national actions. “The headline figures show glimmers of promise. The rise in coverage [of protected areas] since 2020 is over twice the size of Colombia,” Inger Andersen, the UNEP executive director and undersecretary-general of the U.N., said in a speech at COP16 on Oct. 28. “But we must not celebrate hard because there is a great deal more work to be done to meet the 30% target over the next six years, particularly on oceans.” Conservation efforts have ramped up in recent years, but reaching the 30% target will require protecting additional land area equivalent to twice the size of the United States and marine areas larger than the Atlantic Ocean by 2030. A baby howler monkey on Jama Coaque Reserve in northwest Ecuador, a biodiversity hotspot. Image courtesy of Scott Tragese / Third Millennium Alliance. One potential path forward is recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ territories, which cover at…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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