Australian governments have slashed the legal protection of nature reserves in favour of business growth, a global study reveals.

It's among the work of the 73 global governments dropping the ball on land protection, a study published in the journal Science on Friday states.

Monash University's Carly Cook said governments across Australia had made more than 1500 changes which removed 13,000 square kilometres from conservation areas.

The changes from 1997 to present have weakened protection for about 400,000 square kilometres, she said.

"The losses we see in Australia reflect a shift towards the commercialisation and exploitation of conservation areas for human uses," Dr Cook said of the study's findings.

"We've seen governments across the country open up protected areas to commercial developments, such as hotels and marinas, and introduce a string of changes to permit forestry, livestock grazing, hunting and fishing.

"People think protected areas offer permanent protection for biodiversity, but this isn't the case."

All Australian governments have committed to work towards a 17 per cent target for protected areas by 2020 under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

More than three-quarters of the losses across the 125-year period occurred since 2000, the study found.

Governments in 73 countries have removed more than 500,000 square kilometres from protected areas designated for conservation, between 1892 to 2018, according to the report.

Governments across the globe have further weakened the protection of 1.65 million square kilometres during the same time period.

Researchers called for international conventions to establish systems to monitor and report on the loss of conservation areas to match systems for tracking establishment.