A new study published this week found that many nations throughout the world are seeing continued annual increases in visitors to their
conservation areas.

The research, a collaboration between scientists at the University of Cambridge, WWF-US and UNEP-WCMC and published on 29th June in the journal PLoS Biology, found that in 15 of the 20 countries for which information was available there was an increase in the number of visitors to their nature reserves. This has important implications for nations who are reliant on nature-related tourism to generate funds for conservation, as well as for engaging the public about the importance of conserving biodiversity.

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The report, the fifth in UNEP's 'rapid response assessment' series, looks beyond forests and the REDD debates to the potential of natural and agricultural ecosystems to capture and store carbon. It examines the potential for gaining multiple benefits for livelihoods and ecosystem services through managing ecosystem carbon and considers the implications for policy.

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8 June 2009, Cambridge - At a time when the world's oceans are facing unprecedented pressures from human impacts in the marine environment, a new decision-making tool is being launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.

This marine protected areas tool (www.wdpa-marine.org), created by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is part of the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) - the authoritative and most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas.

This new system allows users to view information on marine protected areas in their web browser, to visualise them in Google Earth, to download data, to bring together other important data like species and ecosystem information into the same portal and more.

The WDPA-Marine comes as nations, communities and people around the globe mark World Oceans Day - a day designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans and to seek solutions such as those offered through the establishment of marine protected areas.

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