Global Protected Areas Trends


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The growth of today's global network of protected areas, while starting slowly in the latter part of the 19th century, has risen rapidly over the last 30 years. In fact, there has been an approximate 100-fold increase in the designation of protected areas since the early 1960s.

Protected areas now cover a total area of more than 18 million square kilometers – almost the size of South America.

With the total area of the Earth's surface covered by these areas
and the number of sites designated continuing to rise, keeping up with this global trend is a substantial challenge for all stakeholders whose activities interact with the natural world. This includes oil companies, whose access to reserves depends on access to land.

Growth of the World's Protected Areas Network

Source: UNEP-WCMC, 2005

Protected areas are not only growing fast, but often include ecosystems on which local communities depend economically or culturally. An early alert that a prospective lease block overlaps with a protected area can help you create a constructive dialogue before acreage is acquired.

Ongoing access to protected areas information from a globally recognized, authoritative, central source can assist your project teams with the early identification of potentially sensitive environments. It also provides an early opportunity to open dialogue with key stakeholders who could be impacted by proposed E&P activities.

Recent research from CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Cambridge, MA) has documented that for most oil companies, local stakeholder engagement is becoming a critical success factor, as they tap into frontier areas to meet the world’s growing energy demands and encounter growing local community empowerment and sophistication.

The ability to identify potential conflicts very early in the process – for some companies, starting a dialogue before bidding on a lease – can help your company better manage this growing risk to reputation, current operations and future access to reserves. Having access to “early warning” data can be critical. View CERA Expert Interview: Working with the Neighbors.