ABSTRACT
Protected areas already cover 12.9 per cent of the Earth’s land surface. Marine protected areas only cover 6.3 per cent of territorial seas and a tiny proportion of the high seas (IUCN and UNEP-WCMC, 2010) but are increasing rapidly in number and area. Ecosystems inside protected areas provide a multitude of benefits and the global benefits of protection far outweigh costs. However, benefits from protection are often broadly disbursed, long-term and non-market while the costs of protection and the earning potential from non-protection choices are often short-term and concentrated. Policy actions are needed to address this unequal distribution of benefits and costs. This is vital to make protected areas a socially and economically attractive choice and to maximize their contribution to human well-being at all scales.
