Global conservation area coverage substantially exceeds current estimates

Conservation areas are critical for tackling the global environmental crisis1. These sites are reported as covering 18.5% of the terrestrial realm2 and governments have committed through Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 to increase this to at least 30% by 2030 (ref. 3). There are concerns that this potential near-doubling of conservation area coverage will negatively affect vulnerable people and over-stretch conservation resources4. However, nationally available datasets indicate that more conservation areas exist than are reflected in global figures5–7. We evaluated progress towards the area component of Target 3 using a globally representative sample across 25 countries and territories that incorporated these national datasets8. Extrapolating from this sample, we show that conservation areas likely already cover 26.81% of the terrestrial realm. We may be much closer to achieving 30% terrestrial coverage than previously thought. However, we also show that the extra land does not substantially address gaps in ecological representativeness, indicating that solely meeting the area component of Target 3 will do little to solve continuing global biodiversity loss. More focus and resources are needed to achieve the other components of the target, using a more strategic and inclusive approach to fill present gaps and produce equitable and effective conservation area networks. A globally representative sample of 25 countries and territories indicates that conservation areas cover 26.81% of the land, much closer to the 30% by 2030 target than officially reported.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2026-10-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11157-4
Primary Topic
Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Global conservation area coverage substantially exceeds current estimates

Helen M. K. O’Neill, Steffen Zuther, Susan M. Canney, Joe Beeken et al.
Nature
Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
article

Global conservation area coverage substantially exceeds current estimates

Helen M. K. O’Neill, Steffen Zuther, Susan M. Canney, Joe Beeken, Rachel Golden Kroner, JAMES A. FITZSIMONS, Blair Parsons, Ameer Awad Mohammed, Robert J. Smith, Mayra Milkovic, Joseph W. Bull, Corrado Teofili, Golo Maurer, Cristina Eghenter, Zoe Georgina Davies, Yifan He, Heather C. Bingham, Daniel Marnewick, Clinton N. Jenkins, Samantha L. L. Hill, Yolanda M. León, John Mackinnon, Jessica L Stewart, Javier Beltrán, Sushma Shrestha Sangat, Adil Mohamed Ali, Ryan Richards, Nuwanthika Dharmaratne, Alphonce B. Mallya, Kasmita Widodo, Fábio Ricarte, Dewi Puspitasari Sutejo, Mridhu Tandon, Jens Wunderlich, Yuvenal Pantaleo, Cindy Julianty
article en

Abstract

Conservation areas are critical for tackling the global environmental crisis1. These sites are reported as covering 18.5% of the terrestrial realm2 and governments have committed through Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 to increase this to at least 30% by 2030 (ref. 3). There are concerns that this potential near-doubling of conservation area coverage will negatively affect vulnerable people and over-stretch conservation resources4. However, nationally available datasets indicate that more conservation areas exist than are reflected in global figures5–7. We evaluated progress towards the area component of Target 3 using a globally representative sample across 25 countries and territories that incorporated these national datasets8. Extrapolating from this sample, we show that conservation areas likely already cover 26.81% of the terrestrial realm. We may be much closer to achieving 30% terrestrial coverage than previously thought. However, we also show that the extra land does not substantially address gaps in ecological representativeness, indicating that solely meeting the area component of Target 3 will do little to solve continuing global biodiversity loss. More focus and resources are needed to achieve the other components of the target, using a more strategic and inclusive approach to fill present gaps and produce equitable and effective conservation area networks. A globally representative sample of 25 countries and territories indicates that conservation areas cover 26.81% of the land, much closer to the 30% by 2030 target than officially reported.

Nature
The Nature Conservancy (US), University of Tasmania (AU), CAB International (GB), Zoological Society of London (GB), Deakin University (AU), George Mason University (US), UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (GB), Georgetown University (US), Florida International University (US), University of Kent (GB), BirdLife Australia (AU), Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AU), University of Oxford (GB), The Nature Conservancy (CO), Ministry of the Environment (BR), Wildlife Information Liaison Development (IN), Michael Succow Stiftung zum Schutz der Natur, Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (KZ), Frankfurt Zoological Society (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
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