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 figures^5-7. 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.