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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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A handbook for the Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas Registry (2010) »
Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) are managed areas that are voluntarily conserved by local or indigenous communities for conservation and cultural purposes. This handbook is intended as a guide for those who wish to learn about ICCAs and the newly developed ICCA Registry tool, which aims to develop awareness, recognition and documented values of ICCAs through a community-supported database, maps and an interactive, multimedia website. Communities who govern and manage ICCAs will find this handbook particularly helpful to understand how they can contribute to and benefit from the Registry if they wish. This handbook adheres to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and supports the application of bio-cultural community protocols in maintaining the integrity of community knowledge and resources.
Resource Type: Reports -
Original Natural Habitats of the Indo-Malayan Realm (1997) »
General Data License (excluding WDPA)Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
Read the data policy here
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.This dataset was created show the original habitat types as they were before man's influence in the Indo-Malayan realm; change over time can be seen when used alongside the remaining natural habitats dataset. These datasets were produced alongside the publication "Protected Areas Systems Review of the Indo-Malayan Realm, Mackinnon, J. ed. 1997" in collaboration with The Asian Bureau for Conservation (ABC). This was produced to document the growth and changing character of the protected areas systems of the region over the ten year period 1986-1996. This was in the hope of aiding conservationists and development practioners to conserve Asia's rich biological resources upon which so many depend.
Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps -
Remaining Natural Habitats of the Indo-Malayan Realm (1997) »
General Data License (excluding WDPA)Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
Read the data policy here
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.This dataset was derived from a variety of sources to provide a dataset of the remaining natural habitats of the Indo-Malayan Realm at around the year 1990; change over time can be seen when used alongside the original natural habitats dataset. It was produced alongside the publication "Protected Areas Systems Review of the Indo-Malayan Realm, Mackinnon, J. ed. 1997" in collaboration with The Asian Bureau for Conservation (ABC). This was produced to document the growth and changing character of the protected areas systems of the region over the ten year period 1986-1996. This was in the hope of aiding conservationists and development practioners to conserve Asia's rich biological resources upon which so many depend.
Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps -
Defining Protected Areas International Conference Almeria 2007 »
The IUCN Summit on Protected Area Management Categories was held in Almeria, Spain in May 2007. It aimed to test the opinions of key thinkers and policy makers regarding the revision of guidelines to interpretation of the six IUCN protected area categories. The meeting was generously supported by the Junta de Andalusia, the Spanish Ministry of Environment and the foundation Biodiversidad. The meeting operated through plenary sessions and a series of specialised workshops, with many presentations and time for detailed discussion. There were two field trips, midway through the meeting and at the end. More than a hundred people attended from over fifty countries around of the world.
Resource Type: Reports -
Holdridge's Life Zones (1992) »
General Data License (excluding WDPA)Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
Read the data policy here
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.Holdridge’s work aimed to correlate world plant formations with simple climatic data. The system embraces all major environmental factors in three hierarchical tiers.
Level I - The Life Zone. This is determined by specific quantitative ranges of long-term average annual precipitation, mean annual biotemperature and potential evapotranspiration ratio. These are modified for montane systems.
Level II - The "Association". This is an area of land which, under undisturbed conditions, supports a distinctive natural community adapted through evolution to a specific narrow range of atmospheric and edaphic conditions. No Association can occur in more than one Life Zone.
Level III - The successional stage or cover type, which takes into account that the community may not be in its climax state, either through natural causes or through human intervention.
Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps -
Generalised Original and Current Forest (1998) »
General Data License (excluding WDPA)Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
Read the data policy here
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.Global Generalised 'Original' Forest: This dataset, compiled from various sources at UNEP-WCMC, shows the original extent of global forest cover before human impact. It is divided into needle-leaf forest (NF), non-forest (NON), temperate, broadleaf and mixed forest (TBMF), tropical dry forest (TDF) and tropical moist forest (TMF). This dataset can be used with the dataset showing current forest cover to identify broad change.
Global Generalised 'Current' Forest: This dataset, compiled from various sources at UNEP-WCMC, shows the current (1998) extent of global forest cover. It is divided into needle-leaf forest (NF), non-forest (NON), temperate, broadleaf and mixed forest (TBMF), tropical dry forest (TDF) and tropical moist forest (TMF). This general dataset of global forest cover was produced from a series of regional datasets containing more detailed information of the forest cover. This dataset can be used with the dataset showing original forest cover to identify broad change.
Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps
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Mountains and Forests in Mountains (2000) »
General Data License (excluding WDPA)Datasets Available from UNEP-WCMC: Excluding WDPA
Read the data policy here
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.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
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Biodiversity priorities for the World Heritage List »
This study reviews the biogeographic and biodiversity coverage of the current World Heritage network and identifies broad gaps. It also identifies priority sites for biodiversity conservation that may merit World Heritage listing in the future and reviews how these could help fill the existing gaps in the network.
Resource Type: Reports -
Review of the World Heritage Network: Biogeography, Habitats and Biodiversity »
Over the past 10 years a number of studies and consultations have been carried out to develop and refine the Global Strategy for achieving a balanced, representative and credible World Heritage List that reflects the world’s diverse heritage. This review is an important addition to that process, focusing on the inter-related elements of biogeography, habitats and biological diversity that underpin much of what we consider ‘natural heritage’.
Resource Type: Reports -
The Challenge of Measuring Global Change in Wild Nature: Are Things Getting Better or Worse? »
We briefly review recent global trends in habitat area in as many broadly-defined natural habitats as possible, and in indices of animal populations characteristic of those habitats. The information available indicates continuing declines in habitat area and species, but those data are extremely sparse.
Resource Type: Journal Papers
