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- About UNEP-WCMC
Policies
UNEP-WCMC does not assert any intellectual property rights in the data made available to it by data providers.
Access to UNEP-WCMC datasets is provided on the understanding that you read and consent to be bound by the Terms and Conditions set out in the policies below.
Datasets, Tools & Reports
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UNEP-WCMC Species Database »
The UNEP-WCMC Species Database contains comprehensive nomenclatural, distribution and legal data for species of conservation concern throughout the world.
Resource Type: Tools / Applications -
CITES Species Database »
This database was created and is maintained by UNEP-WCMC with financial support from the European Commission and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee of the United Kingdom.
It contains nomenclatural, distribution and legal data on CITES-listed species.
This information resource is a result of long-term collaboration between countless individual scientists worldwide and many organizations whose contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
Resource Type: Tools / Applications -
CITES Trade Database »
The CITES Trade Database, managed by UNEP-WCMC on behalf of the CITES Secretariat, is a unique resource that holds over 11 million records of trade in wildlife and over 50,000 scientific names of taxa listed by CITES. Contracting Parties provide annual reports to the CITES Secretariat including full details of all export and import permits and certificates issued during the previous year. More than 850,000 records of trade in CITES-listed species of wildlife are reported annually.
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Prospects for Biodiversity »
Assuming no radical transformation in human behavior, we can expect important changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2050. A considerable number of species extinctions will have taken place. Existing large blocks of tropical forest will be much reduced and fragmented, but temperate forests and some tropical forests will be stable or increasing in area, although the latter will be biotically impoverished. Marine ecosystems will be very different from today's, with few large marine predators, and freshwater biodiversity will be severely reduced almost everywhere. These changes will not, in themselves, threaten the survival of humans as a species.
Resource Type: Journal Papers -
Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy »
Sustainability requires living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. In an attempt to measure the extent to which humanity satisfies this requirement, we use existing data to translate human demand on the environment into the area required for the production of food and other goods, together with the absorption of wastes. Our accounts indicate that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s. According to this preliminary and exploratory assessment, humanity's load corresponded to 70% of the capacity of the global biosphere in 1961, and grew to 120% in 1999.
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CITES Trade Data Dashboards »
The CITES Trade Data Dashboards are a new, interactive and dynamic way of viewing the trade data submitted by CITES Parties in their annual reports to the Convention. The Global dashboard displays global trade trends (e.g. global trade in live reptiles), whereas the National dashboard shows information by country. The dashboards have been developed by UNEP-WCMC on behalf of the CITES Secretariat.
Resource Type: Tools / Applications -
Downloads »
UNEP-WCMC provides access to data, information documents and analytical tools relevant to the CITES community and other biodiversity related Conventions.
Resource Type: Tools / Applications -
CITES and the conservation of tree species: the case of Aquilaria in Indonesia »
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Assessing biodiversity impacts of trade: a review of challenges in the agriculture sector »
Advice on assessment of biodiversity impacts is required to support trade negotiations and reduce risks of unforeseen consequences for important biodiversity and those who depend on it for their livelihoods. This paper explores linkages between biodiversity and trade and draws on examples from the agriculture sector to reinforce the need to build a biodiversity-inclusive process for as-sessing impacts of trade policies and agreements.
Resource Type: Journal Papers -
Model-based uncertainty in species range prediction »
Our analyses show significant differences between predictions from different models, with predicted changes in range size by 2030 differing in both magnitude and direction (e.g. from 92 loss to 322 gain). We explain differences with reference to two characteristics of the modelling techniques: data input requirements (presence/absence vs. presence-only approaches) and assumptions made by each algorithm when extrapolating beyond the range of data used to build the model. The effects of these factors should be carefully considered when using this modelling approach to predict species ranges. Main conclusions We highlight an important source of uncertainty in assessments of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and emphasize that model predictions should be interpreted in policy-guiding applications along with a full appreciation of uncertainty.
Resource Type: Journal Papers
