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Datasets, Tools & Reports

Management Effectiveness Evaluation in Protected Areas – a global study (2nd edition) »

The Global Study into management effectiveness evaluation was conducted between late 2005 and 2010. In cooperation with many people across the world, it aimed to strengthen the management of protected areas by compiling the existing work on management effectiveness evaluation, reviewing methodologies, finding patterns and common themes in evaluation results, and investigating the most important factors leading to effective management.
Resource Type: Reports
Global congruence of carbon storage and biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems »

Deforestation is a main driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. An incentive mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here we use the best available global data sets on terrestrial biodiversity and carbon storage to map and investigate potential synergies between carbon and biodiversity-oriented conservation.
Resource Type: Journal Papers
Carbon in Drylands: Desertification, Climate Change and Carbon Finance »

This paper reviews the potential for carbon sequestration in dryland ecosystems, which includes forests, but also covers other habitats, such as grasslands, and, importantly, soils. It also considers ways in which carbon storage in drylands affects land degradation issues.
Resource Type: Reports
UN-REDD Policy Brief: REDD+ Multiple Benefits »

On October 16, at the REDD+ Day of CBD COP 11 in Hyderabad, the UN-REDD programme launched a policy brief focusing on multiple benefits and safeguards under REDD+. The paper elaborated on the use of tools and data to support decisions, and presented examples from implementation in REDD+ countries.

REDD+ is increasingly considered to have the potential to contribute to a range of policy goals in addition to climate change mitigation in the forestry sector. It is also recognized that there are social and environmental risks that may arise as the REDD+ mechanism is being implemented.

What has been less widely acknowledged is that avoiding significant risks and securing additional benefits from REDD+ could be the key to the overall success of the mechanism. By securing benefits beyond carbon, REDD+ can draw support from broader social and political constituencies; demonstrate that it enables a wider range of values to be realized; and generates sustainable income sources.

For governments and other stakeholders to adopt a broader approach to REDD+, a strong evidence base is needed to demonstrate that additional benefits will indeed be achieved, and contributions to national and local priorities accomplished. The Policy Brief outlines a series of analytical approaches that can help provide an evidence base to inform REDD+ decisions. It focuses on addressing environmental risks and benefits, and provides examples from Panama, Nigeria, DRC and Indonesia of where these approaches are already used.
The policy brief was drafted collaboratively with UNEP by UNEP-WCMC as part of their work for the UN-REDD Programme.
Resource Type: Tools / Applications
Evaluating Effectiveness: A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas (2nd Edition 2009) »

The success of protected areas as a tool for conservation is based around the assumption that they are managed to protect the values that they contain. To be effective, management should be tailored to the particular demands of the site, given that each protected area has a variety of biological and social characteristics, pressures and uses. Achieving effective management is not an easy task – it requires adopting appropriate management objectives and governance systems, adequate and appropriate resourcing and the timely implementation of appropriate management strategie and processes. It is unlikely to be achieved fully without an approach to management that is inquiring an reflective – that seeks to understand how effective the current management regime is and how it could be improved. Information on management effectiveness is thus a cornerstone of good management.

Resource Type: Reports
Biodiversity Conservation: Challenges Beyond 2010 »

The continued growth of human populations and of per capita consumption have resulted in unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s biological diversity, exacerbated by climate change, ocean acidification, and other anthropogenic environmental impacts. We argue that effective conservation of biodiversity is essential for human survival and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Despite some conservation successes (especially at local scales) and increasing public and government interest in living sustainably, biodiversity continues to decline. Moving beyond 2010, successful conservation approaches need to be reinforced and adequately financed. In addition, however, more radical changes are required that recognize biodiversity as a global public good, that integrate biodiversity conservation into policies and decision frameworks for resource production and consumption, and that focus on wider institutional and societal changes to enable more effective implementation of policy.
Resource Type: Journal Papers
Carbon Storage in Protected Areas »

This reports looks at the carbon storage function of protected areas as a contribution to the development of strategies for reducing emissions from land use change. In particular, it is relevant to the current discussions surrounding reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Resource Type: Reports
Carbon emissions from forest loss in protected areas »

This study combines the best available data on carbon stocks and deforestation with protected area data to estimate the area of forest loss within the protected area network of the humid tropical forest biome during 2000-2005.
Resource Type: Reports
Carbon and biodiversity relationships in tropical forests »

This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding relationships between carbon and biodiversity in tropical forests.
Resource Type: Reports
Ecosystem services from new and restored forests: tool development »

This document provides a basis for estimating the probable impacts of different forest cover creation approaches on the ecosystem-derived benefits of biodiversity, water provision, soil conservation and non-timber forest products.
Resource Type: Reports