IUCN’s Madhu Rao on the world’s protected areas: Progress, pressures and the race to 2030
A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, […]
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently discussed the status of the world's protected areas at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference. One of the conference's speakers, Madhu Rao, highlighted the progress, pressures, and the race to meet the 2030 goal of conserving at least 30% of land and inland waters, as well as 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030, also known as Target 3 or "30 by 30".
This commitment is not merely about mapping new boundaries but ensuring that conservation efforts work, ecosystems remain connected, and the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities are respected. The discussion was based on sobering evidence that nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of protected and conserved areas have been impacted by various threats. The article was originally published on Mongabay.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
