A sample of the world's largest and most significant protected areas — set against a global protection level still well short of the internationally agreed 30% target for 2030.
Global protected area coverage stood at roughly 17.6% of land and inland waters and about 9.6% of the ocean as of early 2026 — both well short of the 30% target that nearly 200 countries agreed to under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.