Historically we have lacked global data on protected area effectiveness – that is beginning to change

The list of protected and conserved areas grows longer every month. Each time a new national park, nature reserve or marine protected area is designated it brings us closer to the global ambition to conserve 30 per cent of the planet by 2030.

But as the global protected and conserved area network expands, we also need to know if these areas are delivering positive outcomes for people and nature. Are they effective?

Tracking how much of the planet is covered by protected and conserved areas is relatively easy. Measuring how well they perform is much harder. Here we explain what we know about the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas, and how our Protected Planet team is working with partners to advance understanding.

Why is effectiveness so important?

To halt and reverse nature loss, governments have agreed that protected and conserved areas need to cover at least 30 per cent of the planet's lands and waters by 2030. They have also agreed that designating protected and conserved areas is not enough. These areas must be equitably governed and well-managed to achieve conservation outcomes.

In 2022, countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). Target 3 of the KMGBF calls for 30 per cent of the world’s land, inland waters and seas to be within “effectively conserved and managed” and “equitably governed” systems of protected and conserved areas. 

What makes a protected or conserved area ‘effective’?

Effective protected or conserved areas deliver positive, sustained outcomes for nature and people. They are well-designed, managed and equitably governed in ways that uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the benefits to local communities and other stakeholders.

Generally, effective protected and conserved areas limit damaging extractive activities, although light extractive activities, including sustainable use of resources by Indigenous Peoples, may occur if the overall impact is low and sustainable.

More broadly, it is important to think about effectiveness at a systems level. This means designing protected and conserved areas as part of networks that cover the areas that are most important for biodiversity and ecosystem services. They should also be well connected to each other, including within the ocean, conserve the diversity of ecosystem types, and be well integrated into wider landscapes and seascapes.

How many protected and conserved areas are effective?

There are good data on the extent of protected and conserved areas. But data on their effectiveness are much more limited.

Analysis earlier this year, using the scientific framework provided by the MPA Guide, found that although 10 per cent of the ocean is covered by protected or conserved areas, only 3.5 per cent of the ocean is highly or fully protected, and therefore likely to be providing the highest level of benefits for conservation. This is a valuable insight for marine areas. However, no similar approach exists for protected areas on land.

Read more: 10% of ocean now officially protected

Data exist on whether protected and conserved area managers have carried out effectiveness assessments. As of September 2026, 6.8 per cent of protected and conserved areas have had at least one effectiveness assessment, according to the data submitted to the Protected Planet Initiative.

How do we measure conservation effectiveness?

Since the 1990s, a range of methods have been developed and applied to help protected area managers measure conservation effectiveness. These include assessments of how well daily operations and management protect natural and cultural resources. They are also used to help identify operational gaps, such as insufficient funding, lack of enforcement, or weak stakeholder engagement.

The choice of approach to understanding conservation effectiveness will vary in different contexts and might include or combine formal scientific approaches, Indigenous or traditional knowledge, citizen science and information from resource managers. Indigenous Peoples and local communities often have their own methods and systems for assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of the areas they manage.

The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) is the most well-known and widespread assessment tool, underpinning the understanding of outcomes on investments in protected and conserved areas by the Global Environment Facility. Along with various other methodologies, it follows the Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME) framework developed by the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas.

For the ocean, UNEP-WCMC supported the development of the MPA Guide. This is used to classify marine protected areas based on whether they are actively managed and which activities are allowed.

Efforts are also underway to develop approaches specifically for ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs or conserved areas). These sites achieve benefits for nature but are not always managed primarily for conservation, meaning assessments designed for protected areas (where conservation is always a primary objective) need to be adapted.

Read more: Why OECMs are crucial to conserving 30% of Earth’s lands and waters

Why don’t we know more about effectiveness?

Approaches to measuring effectiveness are diverse and include methods tailored to specific national contexts. Assessments are often designed to be conducted at site-level and to inform adaptive management rather than external reporting. As a result, data often do exist at the site level but have not yet been brought together via the global reporting process.

In cases where assessments have not been conducted, this may be linked to funding. Formally assessing the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas requires qualified staff, and the funding to pay for their salaries and the tools they need, which is often unavailable.

Improving our understanding of effectiveness therefore requires a combination of enhanced funding, provision of tools, capacity development and clear processes for collating data at national and global levels.

How are data on effectiveness reported to Protected Planet?

The Protected Planet team at UNEP-WCMC engages with governments, regional entities, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, NGOs and other partners to ensure efforts to track and improve the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas are reflected at the global level.

Data on effectiveness can be submitted to the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness, which is managed as part of the Protected Planet Initiative alongside the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas.

Previously, the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness only listed when an area’s effectiveness had been assessed. In 2026 it was redesigned to capture additional data on the results of these assessments relating to governance, design, management and outcomes. These changes ensure that the database is better equipped to track global progress towards KMGBF Target 3.

The Maldives was the first country to submit the additional data, followed shortly after by Sri Lanka.

Now, the Protected Planet team’s focus is on reaching out to countries and other stakeholders to provide support with reporting data. Doing this is a hugely important contribution toward monitoring global progress towards effective conservation, and improving understanding of where there are gaps in knowledge and where support is needed.

What breakthroughs have been made this year for conservation effectiveness?

New tools and approaches offer exciting opportunities to gain a more comprehensive understanding of protected and conserved area effectiveness.

The Ecosystem Integrity Index is a ground-breaking approach for assessing the state of the planet’s terrestrial ecosystems. Developed by UNEP-WCMC, it reveals how much of an ecosystem’s structure, species and functions are similar to its ‘natural’ or undisturbed state. The index is designed to be used at multiple scales. The fine-resolution data can be used to monitor changes over time within small protected and conserved areas, as well as a broader landscape scale.

Despite technological advancements, on-the-ground assessments and site-level validation continue to be important. They are key to understanding the objectives and management interventions of protected and conserved areas as well as their socio-economic context. Site-level data provide information that is vital for understanding why some management interventions may be more effective than others. They also help to provide a nuanced picture of conservation impact. Bringing remote-sensed and site-level data together provides an opportunity to fully understand the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas at scale.

There is also now has a new approach for consistently identifying ‘paper parks’. This framework, developed by UNEP-WCMC and partners, creates a clear distinction between protected areas that are ineffective or poorly managed and true paper parks, which are not managed at all. The framework defines a paper park as “a site that has been legally or otherwise designated as a protected area, but where management interventions have been absent for at least 5 years” and provides a decision tree to identify such areas.

How is the Protected Planet team working to advance conservation effectiveness?

Closing the data gap to understand and enhance effectiveness is a priority for UNEP-WCMC. Through webinars and one-to-one targeted outreach, we are supporting countries to submit new data and ensure their efforts are reflected in understanding progress towards KMGBF Target 3.

The results of this work will feed into the next Protected Planet Report, due in 2027, which will provide a full status update on how well the planet is conserved.

How can you contribute?

Governance authorities for protected and conserved areas can report effectiveness data to the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness (GD-PAME). Every assessment submitted improves the global picture and helps demonstrate where support is most needed.

Researchers and spatial planners can already put the Ecosystem Integrity Index and paper parks framework to use in their own analyses.

For everyone: Protected Planet will keep tracking this story as the data come in. Explore the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas to see how protected areas of interest to you measure up.

Main image: Lions in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya (Image © Elise Belle)