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pp. 640-643. ISSN 0028-0836Full text available as: The Fifth
World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, announced in
September 2003 that the global network of protected areas now
covers 11.5% of the planet's land surface. This surpasses the
10% target proposed a decade earlier, at the Caracas Congress,
for 9 out of 14 major terrestrial biomes. Such uniform targets
based on percentage of area have become deeply embedded into
national and international conservation planning. Although
politically expedient, the scientific basis and conservation
value of these targets have been questioned. In