The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced a new database on protected areas at the 10-day World Parks Congress (WPC) that started in the South African eastern port city of Durban Monday afternoon.

"It lists World Heritages Sites, biosphere reserves and other protected areas ... (and) for the first time, thousands of sites smaller than 10 square kilometres, many of which are in private hands," a UNEP media statement said.

Until recently, experts had reported 44,000 such areas, but the latest study lists smaller places not counted before.

"The area of the world's protected areas is now far bigger than the land surface of India and China," the report stated. "More than 100,000 protected areas have been established across the developed and developing world."

The rate at which new sites were established was higher in previous decades, and is now starting to stabilise on land with a renewed focus expected on marine environments.

Protected areas cover 11.5 percent of the land surface, but less than 0.5 percent of the seas and oceans that cover 70 percent of the earth.

"We need to continue the good work on the land and tackle the big gaps at sea," UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer told reporters.

Most of the protected marine sites are in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, known for its Great Barrier Reef, but the coastlines of southern and eastern Africa and South Asia are lagging behind.

"It makes the Indian Ocean, with its wealth of coral reefs, seagrass, and mangrove forests, perhaps the most poorly protected ocean," the report said.

The world's largest protected area is Greenland's 97.2 million hectare National Park, followed by the Ar-Rub'al-Khali wildlife management area in Saudi Arabia and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia.

TERRA.WIRE