In 2010, 193 national signatories of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) made a global commitment to increase the world鈥檚 protected areas. Despite this historical increase in protected land, a recent study found that expansions are not adequately protecting vulnerable wildlife.

Researchers found that 85 percent of world鈥檚 4,118 threatened mammals, birds, and amphibian species are not protected in existing national parks, leaving these animals vulnerable to extinction.

James Watson, WCS Climate Change Program Director and a Principle Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, a senior author on the study, explained, 鈥淭he problem is that countries tend to favor land that is cheap to protect when establishing new parks, instead of focusing on land that is important for wildlife. Cheap is easy, but we show that it doesn鈥檛 do much for conserving imperiled species.鈥�