Negotiators have proposed targets to protect roughly one-third of the planet as part of UN talks aimed at striking a global deal to reverse the destruction of nature.

The talks, which have been taking place in Montreal over the past week and a half, are pushing to create what is being dubbed a “Paris Agreement for nature”, referring to the 2015 global deal in which 189 countries pledged to limit global warming to 1.5C.

As part of the final draft of the agreement, released a day before talks are scheduled to conclude on Monday, the presidency proposed that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of the planet’s land and oceans should be “effectively conserved”, while at least 30 per cent of “degraded” land and ocean ecosystems should be under “effective restoration” programmes.