Datasets, Tools & Reports

Search

• Canada: Fungal Inoculation of Trees as a Habitat Enhancement Tool in Second-Growth Forests »

• Managing Ingrown Douglas-fir Stands for Biodiversity, Forage, and Timber: The Farwell Canyon Study, British Columbia, Canada »

• 

  Biodiversity monitoring for REDD+ »

  UNEP-WCMC, with the financial support of the UN-REDD programme, wrote a paper on biodiversity monitoring for REDD+ published in the journal "Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability" as part of ongoing work on REDD+ safeguards. 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.

  Resource Type: Tools / Applications
• 

  Carbon, Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services: Exploring Co-Benefits (Interactive Maps) »

  This tool provides interactive maps that allow users to explore the distribution of carbon density relative to areas high in biodiversity and areas which are nationally protected for different countries around the world. Users can view layers, show or hide layer content, as well as see how the distribution of carbon and biodiversity relates to other geographical features such as rivers, coastlines, and international boundaries.

  Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps
• 

  Tropical Montane Cloud Forest Sites (1997) »

  General Data License (excluding WDPA)

  Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
  Access to UNEP-WCMC datasets is provided on the understanding that you read and consent to be bound by the Terms and Conditions attached. For the purposes of this Agreement the “Data” comprise any of the spatial data and associated attribute data downloadable from the UNEP-WCMC website, excluding the World Database on Protected Areas.

  Read the data policy here

  This dataset shows the location of tropical montane cloud forest sites as recorded in a worldwide inventory compiled by UNEP-WCMC and published in "A Global Directory of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests", Aldrich et al., 1997. This inventory was compiled from literature searches and correspondence with regional experts, and contains a total of 529 sites. The central location for each site is recorded but does not identify the great variability in their size, which ranges from 50 hectares to hundreds of square kilometres.
   

  Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps
• 

  Water, A Shared Responsibility »

  Coastal and freshwater ecosystems are deteriorating in many areas and at a faster rate than any other ecosystem. Such changes are caused by intertwined factors, making it difficult to identify the problems early on. While progress in integrating these various factors in managing water and ecosystems has been made in some places, the majority of the world and its inhabitants increasingly suffers from a lack of priority given to environmental protection.

  Resource Type: Reports
• 

  Protected Planet Report 2012 »

  The Protected Planet Report 2012 reviews progress towards the achievement of international protected area targets.

  Resource Type: Reports
• 

  Cold-water Coral Reefs: Out of Sight - No Longer Out of Mind »

  This report presents comprehensive and up-to-date information and data on marine cold-water coral reefs from around the world. Cold Water Coral Reefs: Out of Sight - No Longer Out of Mind aims to provide policy makers with the information required to take concerted action in the conservation, protection and sustainable management of these beautiful, largely unexplored and fragile coral reefs.
   

  Resource Type: Reports
• 

  Carbon Calculator »

  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.

  Resource Type: Tools / Applications
• 

  Mountains and Forests in Mountains (2000) »

  General Data License (excluding WDPA)

  Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
  Access to UNEP-WCMC datasets is provided on the understanding that you read and consent to be bound by the Terms and Conditions attached. For the purposes of this Agreement the “Data” comprise any of the spatial data and associated attribute data downloadable from the UNEP-WCMC website, excluding the World Database on Protected Areas.

  Read the data policy here

  To provide a global context for a discussion of mountain forests, it is first necessary to define the locations and types of mountain forests, and this in turn requires a definition of mountains or mountain areas. Altitude and slope and the environmental gradients they generate are key components of such a definition, but their combination is problematic. Simple altitude thresholds both exclude older and lower mountain systems and include areas of relatively high elevation that have little topographic relief and few environmental gradients. Using slope as a criterion on its own or in combination with altitude can resolve the latter problem, but not the former. As a first step to evaluating global mountain forest resources and the threats to them, UNEP-WCMC (in collaboration with the Environmental Change Institute and kindly supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation - SDC) in 2000 made a first attempt to map the mountain forests of the world.
   

  Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps