"The Durban Accord sets a new vision -- one that is clear, and one that is feasible for the world to implement," said David Sheppard, the secretary general of the 10-day congress, which ended Wednesday.

The gathering of scientists, conservationists and environment ministers assessed the state of the planet's protected areas -- and in many cases the news was good.

The broad target of setting aside 10 percent of the planet's surface for protection, adopted at the last conference in Venezuela in 1992, was surpassed over the past decade and now stands at around 12 percent.

Many of these areas are so-called "paper parks" where poaching and logging are rampant but conservationists say it is still a major step in the right direction.

Looking ahead, the conference urged governments to greatly increase the amount of protected marine and coastal areas. Only a tiny fraction of the world's oceans are protected at present.

It recommended that a global system of marine and protected areas be established by 2012 and said these networks should "include strictly protected areas that amount to at least 20 to 30 percent of each habitat."

The sorry state of the planet's fisheries is one big piece of bad news clouding the environmental outlook.

Many of the planet's major fish stocks are at breaking point or, as in the case of the once teeming schools of cod off Canada's east coast, have already collapsed.

Heavily subsidized fishing fleets are widely blamed for this and the accord urged a "commitment to redirect perverse subsidies toward support mechanisms for protected areas."

The action plan calls for all globally threatened or endangered species to be conserved 'in situ' by 2010.

The World Conservation Union, which organized the conference, estimates that there are over 11,000 species of animals and plants worldwide threatened with extinction.