São Paulo, Brazil - A newly released study has revealed that the majority of predicted plant and animal extinctions could be prevented by simply preserving 1.2% more of Earth's land.

Currently, the global goal is to have 30% of the Earth's land conserved by 2030, according to aims set out at COP15. The new study suggests that simply adding 1.2% to that goal could mitigate the most anticipated impacts.

Such a move would help to reduce both plant and animal extinctions over the next few decades and would theoretically cost approximately $263 billion.

The study looked at conservation "imperatives" that could reduce the extent of extinctions. According to the report, the additional landmass identified "represents a mere 1.2% of the Earth's terrestrial surface."

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Released in the journal of Frontiers in Science on Tuesday, the study was co-authored by Carlos Peres, a conservation ecology expert at the University of East Anglia, who told Reuters that "The 30-by-30 targets still lack a lot of details because it doesn't actually say what 30 percent should be protected."

"Time is not on our side because it will become increasingly more expensive and more difficult to set aside additional protected areas."

If the recommendations given in the study were followed, about 633,000 square miles would be protected, principally made up of areas home to rare and threatened species. This would be added on top of 16% of the world which is already protected.

The majority of this land would have to be purchased through land acquisition, largely in tropical environments such as in the Philippines and Indonesia.

"Permanently protecting only 0.74% of land found in the tropics, where Conservation Imperatives are concentrated, could prevent the majority of predicted near-term extinctions once adequately resourced," the study states.