Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44358-026-00169-7Current standards for assessing species representation in protected areas are outdated. We propose raising the minimum representation target to 30% of a species range, lowering the threshold for assigning a 100% representation target to species with ranges below 200 km2, and adopting dynamic targets that evolve with global conservation commitments.