The so-called "Durban Accord", to be adopted Wednesday by some 2,500 delegates from more than 170 countries at the congress in South Africa's eastern port city of Durban, contained the main outcomes of the event and was released on the eve of its closing.

It sketched a gloomy picture of the environment, adding that a fresh and innovative approach was crucial to ensure the planet's livelihood.

"We voice concern that wild and natural areas outside of protected areas have shrunk by at least half in the last 20 years and that biological diversity, in turn, is on the brink of mass extinction," the document stated.

The 10-day conference has been focusing on the world's 100,000 environmentally protected areas, how to manage and safeguard them, and how communities living in these sites can benefit from conservation.

The key to success was to involve people living in protected areas with conservation efforts, the accord said.

Previously it was believed that people should be moved out of conserved sites, but growing populations and rising demands for food and water made that approach impossible.

"In this changing world, we need a fresh and innovative approach to protected areas and their role in broader conservation and development agendas.

"This approach demands the maintenance and enhancement of our core conservation goals, equitably integrating them with the interests of all affected people," the document said.

The congress also issued a series of recommendations on themes that dominated the event, including money matters, the developing world and the under-protection of marine sites.

It recommended that an effectively managed global system of marine and coastal protected areas be established by 2012. Only 0.5 percent of the world's 11.5 percent protected areas are marine sites.

It also said the annual 25-billion dollar funding shortfall, the bulk of it in developing countries, needed to be addressed.

World Parks Congress Secretary General David Sheppard said none of the congress outputs were legally binding on governments.

"But given the calibre of participants and the process by which they were developed, they remain a powerful tool to promote, guide and influence positive action for protected areas around the globe," Sheppard said.

TERRA.WIRE