This innovative tool provides users with initial estimates of embedded carbon within an identified spatial area such as a protected area or any user-defined polygon drawn on a global map.

Carbon estimates are based on a global map of carbon storage (Scharlemann et al. 2009), which consists of a dataset of carbon stored in above - and below ground biomass (Ruesch and Gibbs 2008) combined with a dataset on carbon stored in soil down to 1 meter depth (Scharlemann et al. in prep.). The quality of these estimates will further improve with time, as more accurate datasets become available. Additional biodiversity datasets identifying areas of biodiversity importance will be added.

The tool is using the most up to date version of the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), which is available at www.protectedplanet.net.