Context: According to the Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Protected Planet Report 2020 as many as 82 per cent of countries and territories increased their share of protected area and coverage of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) since 2010.

• This report is the first in the series to include data on OECMs in addition to protected areas.
• It was issued by UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with support from the National Geographic Society, a global non-profit.  

Key highlights of the report

• The world has made progress toward the ambitious goals to conserve 17 per cent of land and inland water ecosystems and 10 per cent of its coastal waters and oceans by 2020.
• These goals were agreed by countries in 2010 at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity where Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 was set. It was a set of 20 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity. 

Since 2010, over 21 million square kilometres has been placed within protected and conserved areas, meaning that 42 per cent of the area now within protected and conserved areas has been added in the last decade.

• There is an increase of 5 percentage points or less in each case of of key biodiversity areas (KBA) since 2010.
• The greatest growth in protected areas and OECMs over the 10 year period has been in marine and coastal areas.
• The report also called for existing protected and conserved areas to be identified and recognised by accounting for the efforts of indigenous peoples, local communities and private entities.
• According to the report, Data remain poor on the effectiveness of governance and management in protected areas and OECMs.

Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM)

• OECM are a conservation designation for areas that are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas.
• On an average, 62.6 per cent of key biodiversity areas (KBA) either fully or partially overlap with protected areas and OECMs.
• KBAs are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. 
• The average percentage of each KBA within protected areas and OECMs is 43.2 per cent for terrestrial; 42.2 per cent for inland water and 44.2 per cent for marine (within national waters).