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The world's protected areas number nearly 114,000 and cover almost 20 million square kilometers. However, researchers and practitioners alike have documented numerous problems with the management effectiveness of the world's protected area. For example, more than 70 percent of 201 tropical parks are affected by poaching, encroachment, logging and a host of lesser threats; more than 90 percent of Russia's 197 National Parks have serious gaps in infrastructure, management, planning and staffing, and most of the 110 parks in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province have major gaps in data collection, park layout and design, field equipment, and research.

The world's protected areas number nearly 114,000 and cover almost 20 million square kilometers. However, researchers and practitioners alike have documented numerous problems with the management effectiveness of the world's protected area. For example, more than 70 percent of 201 tropical parks are affected by poaching, encroachment, logging and a host of lesser threats; more than 90 percent of Russia's 197 National Parks have serious gaps in infrastructure, management, planning and staffing, and most of the 110 parks in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province have major gaps in data collection, park layout and design, field equipment, and research.

The World Heritage Convention is one of the five global multilateral environmental agreements (the others being the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the Convention on Migratory Species). The World Heritage Convention focuses on conservation of outstanding natural and cultural heritage by recognizing the world's best heritage areas on the World Heritage List, as well as by encouraging heritage conservation at the national level. Only States Parties on the Convention can nominate sites to the World Heritage List. Natural sites normally need to be National Parks or otherwise legally- protected and managed areas. The concept of customary or traditional management is also starting to gain acceptance with the Convention as a recognized protection mechanism.