24
As the Executive Summary of the PPR points out, progress is being made, with
a doubling in 5 years of marine protected areas to over 3% globally (though a far cry
from the hoped-for CBD Aichi Target 11 of 10% coastal and marine protections by
2020) and, terrestrially, an increase to over 15%, close to the 17% goals set for 2020
(a target hard to envision given the global economic downturns of that year). But of
significant interest, since 2008, the number of protected areas in the world overall
has gone from just over 206,000 to “238,563 protected areas from 244 countries and
territories, covering more than 46 million km
2”
(as represented in the 2018 United
Nations List of Protected Areas), including the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
(ABNJ—i.e., the High Seas as designated in the 1982 UNCLOS treaty.)
12
In those areas where the WDPA protected area monitoring effectiveness has been
unclear or ambiguous, data gap analyses—as reflected in the monitoring criteria of
the GD-PAME, a searchable database known as The Global Database on Protected
Area Management Effectiveness—
13
were not included in the 238,563 total. As of
late 2019, there were 2071 such ambiguous units.
14
Encouraging though the overall
number of protected areas around the world may seem, in the first ever comparable
study of underfunded biodiversity locales, it was made clear that “biodiversity
declines have progressed rapidly, and further delays in improving finance are likely
to lead to even greater global extinction risks…”.
15
Conversely, what would it take
to rapidly alter the course of inadequate funding for global biodiversity? The problem, at its source, is the paucity of actual fieldwork on species diversity, a gap that
impedes the critical arguments needed to confidently solicit requisite levels of private, corporate, and government financing. According to one finding “only 33,536
of the 91,000 species on the IUCN Red List” have been “comprehensively assessed.”
The word “comprehensive” is a human word; and relative in every human sense.
16
By the most conservative estimates, there are “8.7 million” species on earth.
17
But a later study argues that the number 8.7 million fully underestimates, to begin
with, microbial species, which researchers have now placed at “upwards of 1 trillion
12 See https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf.
13 See https://pame.protectedplanet.net
14 ibid., https://wdpa.s3.amazonaws.com/UN_List_2018/2018%20List%20of%20Protected%20
Areas_EN.pdf, p.8.
15 “Targeting global conservation funding to limit immediate biodiversity declines,” by Anthony
Waldron, Arne Mooers, Daniel C. Miller, Nate Nibbelink, et.al., Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences 110(29), July 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221370110,
Pubmed,
PY
2013/07/01,
VL110,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244482672_
Targeting_global_conservation_funding_to_limit_immediate_biodiversity_declines,
Accessed
February 21, 2020.
16 See “Matches and Mismatches Between Global Conservation Efforts and Global Conservation
Priorities,” by David F. Willer, Kevin Smith, and David C. Aldridge, Frontiers in Ecology and
Evolution, 07 August 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00297, https://www.frontiersin.org/
articles/10.3389/fevo.2019.00297/full, Accessed February 21, 2020.
17 See “How many species on Earth? About 8.7 million, new estimate says,” Census of Marine Life,
Science News, August 24, 2011, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823180459.
htm
3 Ecological Problems and Paradigmatic Solutions
As the Executive Summary of the PPR points out, progress is being made, with
a doubling in 5 years of marine protected areas to over 3% globally (though a far cry
from the hoped-for CBD Aichi Target 11 of 10% coastal and marine protections by
2020) and, terrestrially, an increase to over 15%, close to the 17% goals set for 2020
(a target hard to envision given the global economic downturns of that year). But of
significant interest, since 2008, the number of protected areas in the world overall
has gone from just over 206,000 to “238,563 protected areas from 244 countries and
territories, covering more than 46 million km
2”
(as represented in the 2018 United
Nations List of Protected Areas), including the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
(ABNJ—i.e., the High Seas as designated in the 1982 UNCLOS treaty.)
12
In those areas where the WDPA protected area monitoring effectiveness has been
unclear or ambiguous, data gap analyses—as reflected in the monitoring criteria of
the GD-PAME, a searchable database known as The Global Database on Protected
Area Management Effectiveness—
13
were not included in the 238,563 total. As of
late 2019, there were 2071 such ambiguous units.
14
Encouraging though the overall
number of protected areas around the world may seem, in the first ever comparable
study of underfunded biodiversity locales, it was made clear that “biodiversity
declines have progressed rapidly, and further delays in improving finance are likely
to lead to even greater global extinction risks…”.
15
Conversely, what would it take
to rapidly alter the course of inadequate funding for global biodiversity? The problem, at its source, is the paucity of actual fieldwork on species diversity, a gap that
impedes the critical arguments needed to confidently solicit requisite levels of private, corporate, and government financing. According to one finding “only 33,536
of the 91,000 species on the IUCN Red List” have been “comprehensively assessed.”
The word “comprehensive” is a human word; and relative in every human sense.
16
By the most conservative estimates, there are “8.7 million” species on earth.
17
But a later study argues that the number 8.7 million fully underestimates, to begin
with, microbial species, which researchers have now placed at “upwards of 1 trillion
12 See https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf.
13 See https://pame.protectedplanet.net
14 ibid., https://wdpa.s3.amazonaws.com/UN_List_2018/2018%20List%20of%20Protected%20
Areas_EN.pdf, p.8.
15 “Targeting global conservation funding to limit immediate biodiversity declines,” by Anthony
Waldron, Arne Mooers, Daniel C. Miller, Nate Nibbelink, et.al., Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences 110(29), July 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221370110,
Pubmed,
PY
2013/07/01,
VL110,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244482672_
Targeting_global_conservation_funding_to_limit_immediate_biodiversity_declines,
Accessed
February 21, 2020.
16 See “Matches and Mismatches Between Global Conservation Efforts and Global Conservation
Priorities,” by David F. Willer, Kevin Smith, and David C. Aldridge, Frontiers in Ecology and
Evolution, 07 August 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00297, https://www.frontiersin.org/
articles/10.3389/fevo.2019.00297/full, Accessed February 21, 2020.
17 See “How many species on Earth? About 8.7 million, new estimate says,” Census of Marine Life,
Science News, August 24, 2011, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823180459.
htm
3 Ecological Problems and Paradigmatic Solutions