Protected and conserved area effectiveness: Introducing an enhanced framework for reporting data to Protected Planet

Increasing the extent of protected and conserved areas (PCAs), without ensuring these areas are effectively conserving biodiversity, is insufficient to achieve global conservation targets. At the site level, assessing effectiveness is an important part of adaptive management and a wide range of tools have been developed for this purpose. Collating effectiveness data at the global level is important for tracking progress towards Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). However, the ability to synthesise insights gained through effectiveness assessments has been limited due to one fundamental problem: how to gather meaningful, standardised data given the diversity of tools applied around the world. This paper presents recent enhancements to the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness that will enable effectiveness information to be reported in a standardised yet flexible manner. While these changes represent an important milestone, a collaborative effort is required to overcome persistent challenges, including funding and capacity gaps. Prioritising the next steps outlined in this paper will help to facilitate the collation of PCA effectiveness data and improve understanding of progress towards Target 3 of the KMGBF.