Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem type
Last updated on 1 February 2022
This indicator is currently classified as Tier I. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the Custodian agency for this indicator.
Unit of measure: Mean percentage of each terrestrial and freshwater Key Biodiversity Area covered by (i.e. overlapping with) protected areas and/or Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures
Sub Indicators: Average proportion of Freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) covered by protected areas (%), Average proportion of Terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) covered by protected areas (%)
Official indicator data
Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem type. This dataset provides a percentage of the mean proportion of Key Biological Areas (KBA) that are protected for their environmental values in both terrestrial ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.
* Select "year" below to see the most recent data for more countries.
** To refresh the map with other official data, use the ’Select an indicator field’. Type in the other indicators titles, as given in the table below.
| Indicator | Min-Max Number of years |
Countries / Obs | Min / Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average proportion of Freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) covered by protected areas (%) | |||
| Average proportion of Terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) covered by protected areas (%) |
Other related indicators on Land Portal
Other related data: In addition to the official indicator data, the following indicators provide information related to terrestrial and marine protected areas and community or indigneous land rights in protected areas.
| Indicator | Min-Max Number of years |
Countries / Obs | Min / Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marine protected areas (% of territorial waters) | |||
| Terrestrial and marine protected areas (% of total territorial area) | |||
| Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area) | |||
| X - Land Rights in protected areas - Community Lands | |||
| X - Land Rights in protected areas - Indigenous People |
News and Blogs
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Recursos de la biblioteca
Indicator 15.1.2: Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem type
Global strategies to halt the dual crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are often formulated separately, even though they are interdependent and risk failure if pursued in isolation. The Global Safety Net maps how expanded nature conservation addresses both overarching threats. We identify 50% of the terrestrial realm that, if conserved, would reverse further biodiversity loss, prevent CO2 emissions from land conversion, and enhance natural carbon removal.
Recent expansion of the scale of human activities poses severe threats to Earth’s life-support systems. Increasingly, protected areas (PAs) are expected to serve dual goals: protect biodiversity and secure ecosystem services. We report a nationwide assessment for China, quantifying the provision of threatened species habitat and four key regulating services—water retention, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, and carbon sequestration—in nature reserves (the primary category of PAs in China).
Protected areas are usually conceived and managed as static entities, although this approach is increasingly viewed as unrealistic given climate change and ecosystem dynamics. The ways in which people use land and/or natural resources within and around protected areas can also shift and evolve temporally but this remains an under-acknowledged challenge for protected area managers. Here we investigate the factors driving a rapid rise in charcoal production within a new, multiple-use protected area in Madagascar, to inform appropriate management responses.
A growing number of protected areas are defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as protected landscapes and seascapes, or category V protected areas, one of six protected area categories based on management approach. Category V now makes up over half the protected area coverage in Europe, for instance. While the earliest category V areas were designated mainly for their landscape and recreational values, they are increasingly expected also to protect biodiversity. Critics have claimed that they fail to conserve enough biodiversity.
Indicator details
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
UNEP work encompasses: