A collaborative effort of many partners, the Protected Planet Report 2012 reviews progress towards key elements of Target 11 and summarises the status and trends in global biodiversity protection for decision makers and the conservation community. In order to highlight trends over time, this report draws on a range of indicators that cover at least the period 1990-2010, a time frame which is to be extended in future editions of the report. According to the report, the global protected area coverage has increased from 8.8% to 12.7% in terrestrial areas (including inland waters) and from 0.9% to 4% in marine areas under national jurisdiction. The percentage of terrestrial ecoregions meeting the 17% target has increased from 21% to 33%, and the percentage of marine ecoregions meeting the 10% target from 3% to 13%. An increasing number of studies show that protected areas make a critical contribution to habitat and species conservation and thus to Aichi Targets 5 and 12, in particular when habitat and species are compared inside and outside protected areas. However, limited progress has been made with protecting important sites for biodiversity, with half of the best described sites still entirely unprotected.