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Big Increase in the Number of Natural Reserves in the World

 Big Increase in the Number of Natural Reserves in the World

In the last four years, there has been a massive increase in the number of protected areas we have on this planet. A survey revealed that in the last four years, approx six million square kilometers of area has been added to Earth’s total conservation reserves. This number is nearly equivalent to the size of a country like Australia. Currently we have around 209,000 natural reserves in the world, covering approx 15.5 percent of the planet’s terrestrial regions and inland waterways.
This surprising move is a result of a combined effort made by several nations together, to protect the ecosystem of our planet. Protected areas not only provide our cities with an essential ecological safety net, but also they play a vital role in maintaining the economic value of the ecosystem, by providing us with water, wood and sustaining tourism.
Even after this massive increase, there is no surety that we’ll be able to protect our planet and all of its inhabitants. We are losing several of our planet’s species at an alarming rate. Why? Because a majority of these protected areas are residual areas, mere leftovers of the world. They are located either on high altitudes or extremely cold regions which are arid, steep or infertile. Such areas are incapable of maintaining the biodiversity of the planet.
Now, the nations of the world are trying to achieve the target of conserving 17 percent of the terrestrial environments and 10 percent of marine environments by 2020, but only time will tell how effective this move is going to be, in the bid to protect our planet’s endangered species.

Divya Singh

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