ABSTRACT
No overall figure for extent of area-based conservation exists. Data remain partial: best for protected areas, virtually non-existent or at best very rough estimates for other types of area-based conservation. Protected areas already cover 15 per cent of the land and 7.8 per cent of the ocean. Indigenous people have tenure rights on around a quarter of the world’s land surface, but the amount of this that will remain as relatively natural ecosystem is still unknown; ICCAs are increasing, but there are no global statistics. OECMs are only just starting to be established, although there are already some studies of their likely extent. And regarding information on ecological representation, protected areas still have only very partial coverage for key biodiversity areas and at an ecoregional scale, many ecoregions remain under-represented or absent from the protected area estate.
