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  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
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  Methods for assessing and monitoring change in the ecosystem-derived benefits of afforestation, reforestation and forest restoration »

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  Mountains and Tree Cover in Mountain Regions (2002) »

  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. The mountains dataset shows the location of mountain land estimated from a digital elevation model using criteria based on elevation alone (the upper three classes: > 2 500 metres) and at lower elevation, on a combination of elevation, slope and local elevation range. This is an update of the Mountain's of the World 2000 and was produced for the UNEP-WCMC publication Mountain Watch, 2002.

  The mountains dataset has been overlayed with a global data set on percent tree cover taken from MODIS 1-km resolution percent tree cover data, courtesy of University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility. Species richness, density and forest height tend to reduce with increasing altitude; the boundary between forest vegetation and more open ground cover at higher elevation 'the treeline' is an ecological marker signifying the transition to more extreme climatic conditions.

  Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps
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  Remaining Natural Habitats of the Indo-Malayan Realm (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 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
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  Climate Change and the Biodiversity of European Islands »

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  Generalised Original and Current Forest (1998) »

  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

  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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  The Natural Fix »

  The report, the fifth in UNEP's 'rapid response assessment' series, looks beyond forests and the REDD debates to the potential of natural and agricultural ecosystems to capture and store carbon. It examines the potential for gaining multiple benefits for livelihoods and ecosystem services through managing ecosystem carbon and considers the implications for policy.

  Resource Type: Reports

• UNEP Issue Paper No.7 - Bioenergy and REDD+ : Opportunities and Challenges »

  How do bioenergy policies relate to the REDD+ mechanism, is the subject of this new Bioenergy Issue Paper jointly authored by UNEP and UNEP-WCMC.
  The potential contribution of bioenergy in reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases has been widely debated, both in terms of climate change mitigation potential and potential risk of increases in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from land use change. This has raised the question of how bioenergy policies relate to the REDD+ mechanism developed under the UNFCCC. This issue paper examines the complexity of this relationship and stresses the importance of ensuring policy coherence across the relevant sectors.

  For a look at the UNEP Issue Paper Series, please visit:
  http://www.unep.org/bioenergy/Issues/UNEPIssuePaperSeries/tabid/79387/Default.aspx

  Resource Type: Tools / Applications
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  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
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  Udvardy's Biogeographical Provinces (1975) »

  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 was prepared by IUCN as a contribution to the UNESCO MAB Programme.
  The main purpose of the work was to devise a satisfactory classification of the world's biotic areas for purposes of conservation. It is the fourth attempt in a series of revisions, updating the previous three works written by Dasmann.
  The logic behind the system was that the plant and animal world occurs within
  the biosphere of the Earth in the form of an intertwined network of individuals,
  populations and interacting systems. To be able to view them in a systematic way, the biologist may use the following approaches:
  Taxonomic order, Ecological order, Phylogenetic order (origins and history).
  Biogeographic order - grouping the above entities on a geographic basis.

  To define geographic units for conservation purposes the following were considered:
  (a) the distribution of species and (b) the distribution of ecosystem units. The
  result was a system serving both aims, a hierarchical system of geographical areas which would give a framework for conserving species as well as ecologic areas.
  These hierarchical Biogeographical entities were named Realms, Biomes and Provinces.

  The first subdivision, the Realm, used the phylogenetic subdivisions of the world, unifying those for flora and fauna. It is a continent or sub-continent-sized area
  with unifying features of geography and flora/fauna/vegetation. Eight Realms were distinguished. The second division is the Biome. These were not the same as the
  major vegetation formations of the world (see UNESCO, 1973), but combine the features of a major vegetation type with climate. There are 14 of these. These
  were largely based on the work of Dasmann. The third, most detailed, subdivision was the Province, delimited on a faunal, floral and ecological basis. There are
  186 of these.

  Resource Type: Spatial Data / Maps