UNEP-WCMC: Latest News

VACANCY - Senior Programme Officer (AD771)

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Ecosystem Assessment Programme
Salary £32,000 - £38,000
Permanent

Vacancy - Programme Officer (AD759)

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Ecosystem Assessment Programme
Salary £25,000 - £31,000
Permanent

VACANCY - Head of Capacity Development

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Head of Capacity Development (AD767) – Permanent Contract
Salary Band B £41,922 - £55,897

WCMC is a UK charity, based in Cambridge, which supports the United Nations Environment Programme. We work in collaboration with UNEP, under the banner of UNEP-WCMC. Our mission is to evaluate and highlight the many values of biodiversity and put authoritative biodiversity knowledge at the centre of decision-making. Since our establishment in the 1970s, the Centre has been at the forefront of the compilation, management, analysis and dissemination of global biodiversity information, and has an outstanding record of achievement.

WCMC is now seeking to fill a new role of Head of Capacity Development to work with us on a permanent basis and to take a leading role in ensuring the Centre’s growing engagement with national governments is as effective as possible.

Assistant Programme Officer (Science)

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Assistant Programme Officer (12 Month Fixed Term)
Salary Band E £17,467 - £23,000

WCMC is now seeking to fill the role of Assistant Programme Officer to work with our Science team. This is a 12 month fixed term position, which may be extended.

Showcasing Species+

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) will be showcasing plans for a new on-line portal at the 16th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES (CoP) in Thailand from 3–14 March. The new integrated species information platform, known as Species+, will enable Parties to search CITES species lists and databases of legal trade in CITES-listed species more quickly and interactively than ever before, when complete.

A GEM for modelling whole ecosystems, worldwide

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Scientists from Microsoft Research and the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) are developing the first general-purpose computer model of whole ecosystems, across the entire world. In a recent Nature article (Time to Model all Life on Earth), the authors argue that this type of model could radically improve our understanding of the biosphere and inform policy decisions about biodiversity and conservation.

Cropland Expansion Increases Biodiversity Loss

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

An increase in the amount of land being used for crops is one of the main reasons for the continuing loss of biodiversity and threatens to undermine attempts to meet international environmental goals, according to a new report involving scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

TENDER - SEED INITIATIVE ‘Running SEED Awards: 2013-2014 Cycles’

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The SEED Initiative is inviting tenders to run the SEED Awards: 2013-2014 cycle.

UN-REDD multiple benefits workshop announcement

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As part of its UN-REDD Programme work, the workshop “REDD+ Beyond Carbon: Safeguards and Multiple Benefits” organised by UNEP-WCMC on behalf of UNEP took place in Cambridge last month. Participants discussed applying REDD+ safeguards in country, the quantification, valuation and mapping of multiple benefits, and monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on ecosystem services and biodiversity. Presentations from the workshop, and the report detailing the key findings are available here.

UNEP-WCMC publishes a new paper "Biodiversity monitoring for REDD+"

Wed, 5 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

UNEP-WCMC, with the financial support of the UN-REDD programme, has written a paper on biodiversity monitoring for REDD+ published in the journal "Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability" this week. The paper observes the following three challenge to biodiversity monitoring for REDD+: choosing which aspects of biodiversity to monitor, the difficulty of attributing particular changes to REDD+ and the likely scarcity of resources for biodiversity monitoring. It proposes three responses which may address these challenges: 1) agreed policy targets that identify what should be monitored; 2) making links to existing biodiversity monitoring and to monitoring to estimate GHG emissions and removals; and 3) developing clear theories of change to assist in determining which changes in biodiversity can be attributed to REDD+. The paper is available on the journal website here.