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  Indirect Land Use Change from biofuel production: implications for biodiversity »

  This JNCC-commissioned report highlights biodiversity impacts of indirect land use change caused by biofuel production. Increased demand for biofuels to achieve renewable energy targets is putting pressure on biodiversity worldwide. The research highlights a new and so far little understood threat: the impact of indirect land use change on biodiversity.

  Resource Type: Tools / Applications
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  Climate Change and the Biodiversity of European Islands »

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  Convention on Biological Diversity poster series »

  This poster series was created to show some of the many topics UNEP-WCMC is involved with in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity, including the following:

  1. Achieving multiple benefits through a UNFCCC mechanism on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
  2. A Global Network of Protected Areas: On target for 2010 and 2012?
  3. Protecting the Future: Carbon, forests, protected areas and local livelihoods
  4. Progress towards the 30% Management Effectiveness target
  5. Mapping the World's Protected Areas: the role of the WDPA
  6. Forest Certification: How do Latin American standards address biodiversity?
  7. Restoration of tropical dry forests

   

  Resource Type: Posters
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  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
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  Global Biodiversity Outlook-3 »

  The third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) summarizes the latest data on status and trends of biodiversity and draws conclusions for the future strategy of the Convention. GBO-3 is based on a range of information sources, including National Reports, biodiversity indicators information, scientific literature, and a study assessing biodiversity scenarios for the future.

  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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  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
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  Reducing Emissions from Deforestation: global mechanisms, conservation and livelihoods »

  This briefing considers the implications for biodiversity conservation and local people’s livelihoods of the current discussion on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (RED-DC, henceforth RED) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The potential for RED to deliver multiple benefits for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods and other ecosystem services is well documented (UNEP-WCMC 2007). But it is important to note that RED could also have negative impacts on biodiversity and local livelihoods, for example as a result of the displacement of deforestation.

  Resource Type: Reports

• Impacts of climate change and selected renewable energie infrastructures on EU biodiversity and the Natura 2000 network »

  This summary report aims to provide the European Commission with an overview of the likely impact of climate change on biodiversity in the European Union and indications as to how the design and implementation of current policy might need to be adapted in order to ensure that the EU respects its commitment to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 and beyond.

  Resource Type: Reports
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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