The Convention on Biological Diversity has established a global target for the

protection of 10% of each of the world's ecological regions by 2010. This report uses the

WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World and the 2009 version of the World Database of

Protected Areas to analyse progress towards achieving this politically established

conservation goal across the world. Overall, five of the seven realms (excluding

Antarctica), and 11 of the 14 biomes have over 10% protected area coverage. However,

only 54% of the WWF terrestrial ecoregions reach the 10% protected area coverage

target. Nations are still working to develop their protected area networks and it is likely

that further ecoregions will reach the 10% protected area coverage target for terrestrial

ecological regions by 2010. Although protection of the Global 200 priority ecoregions is

higher than for the total set of ecoregions, with 72 % reaching the 10% target, previous

studies have suggested that areas of high biodiversity may require higher levels of

protection and conservation planning. The approaching 2010 deadline provides a further

opportunity to discuss and assess the effectiveness of the 10% target in affording

adequate protection for species and habitats, which needs to be addressed in more detail

in the coming year.