This special 2005 issue of CBD News, the newsletter of the UN biodiversity convention, focuses on the role of protected areas in meeting a global target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss before 2010.

Nearly 12 per cent of the Earth's land surface is now under protected status, though it is widely acknowledged that much of this land amounts to what are known as "paper parks" — national parks that exist on paper, but not in any practical sense.

This report includes updates and reports from protected areas all over the world, as well as views and opinions from international donors such as the Global Environment Facility as well as conservation agencies such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Conservation International, both of which are at the vanguard of moves to increase the amount of land surface area that has protected status.

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