Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets.

Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. We analyzed PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebrates and conifers (588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, AZEs) (referred to collectively hereafter as 'important sites').

Advances in concepts and methods for the marine environment: implications for policy.

Science-based indicators aimed at measuring the sustainability of human activities on the environment have become of prime importance in the policy arena. At the international level, the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Convention on Biological Diversity and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements have recognised the need to develop a set of scientific indicators related to changes in biodiversity and other environmental issues able to direct policy decisions. In the marine realm, the study of the effects of both 'top-down' extractive activities such as fishing is more and more dealt with, in conjunction with 'bottom-up' activities such as nutrient loading and the effects on biogeochemical cycles, marine geochemistry and ecosystem structure and functioning of other pollutants and contaminants.