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  Publications »

  UNEP-WCMC produces reports for a number of fora including CITES, the European Commission and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Recent examples of these reports can be downloaded here in PDF format.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Everything is connected: climate and biodiversity in a fragile world »

  This publication brings together eight original articles by experts to tackle head on some of the most difficult questions facing us all:

  * How a stable climate and a productive biosphere can be secured together.
  * Why this is an opportunity for green growth.
  * How a closer partnership between the multilateral environmental agreements, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, can help.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Progress towards international targets for protected area coverage in mountains »

  Through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the world’s governments recently adopted a target to protect at least 17% of the global land area by 2020. This paper evaluates current levels of protection for mountains at multiple scales. It shows that the CBD’s 17% target has already been almost met at a global scale: 16.9% of the world’s mountain areas outside Antarctica fall within protected areas. However, protection of mountain areas at finer scales remains uneven and is largely insufficient, with 63% (125) of countries, 57% (4) of realms, 67% (8) of biomes, 61% (437) of ecoregions and 53% (100) of Global 200 priority ecoregions falling short of the target. The CBD target also calls for protected areas to be focussed “especially [at] areas of particular importance for biodiversity”. Important Bird Areas and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites represent existing global networks of such sites. It is therefore of major concern that 39% and 45% respectively of these sites in mountain areas remain entirely unprotected. Achievement of the CBD target in mountain regions will require more focused expansion of the protected area network in addition to enhanced management of individual sites and the wider countryside in order to ensure long term conservation of montane biodiversity and the other ecosystem services it provides.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  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
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  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
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  Speaking a Common Language: Uses and performance of the IUCN System of Management Categories for Protected Areas (2004) »

  This report provides an overview of the use of Management Categories for Protected Areas. It looks at the emergence of the system of protected area management categories, the original purposes of the system and new uses being made of it. Suggestions are made as to how the system can be used more effectively. Finally there is a set of recommendations, along with a vision as to the place of the categories in the future.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  State of the World's Protected Areas 2007 »

  The report highlights achievements made in protected areas around the world during 2007. Through this publication, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) provides an assessment of progress made towards targets set by international agreements such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This publication should provide useful insights to anyone directly involved with or interested in the protection of natural and cultural areas for biodiversity protection or sustainable development.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Protected Areas and Biodiversity: An Overview of Key Issues (2004) »

  Protected Areas and Biodiversity: An Overview of Key Issues synthesizes key aspects in the development of protected areas: the level of international commitment, the relationship of protected areas to sustainable development, and critical issues related to their effectiveness. This publication has been compiled by the Secretariat of the CBD and UNEP-WCMC as an input to the Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets »

  Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. This paper analyzes PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebrates and conifers (588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, AZEs) (referred to collectively as ‘important sites’). Species occurring in important sites with greater PA coverage experienced smaller increases in extinction risk over recent decades: the increase was half as large for bird species with>50% of the IBAs at which they occur completely covered by PAs, and a third lower for birds, mammals and amphibians restricted to protected AZEs (compared with unprotected or partially protected sites). Globally, half of the important sites for biodiversity conservation remain unprotected (49% of IBAs, 51% of AZEs). While PA coverage of important sites has increased over time, the proportion of PA area covering important sites, as opposed to less important land, has declined (by 0.45–1.14% annually since 1950 for IBAs and 0.79–1.49% annually for AZEs). Thus, while appropriately located PAs may slow the rate at which species are driven towards extinction, recent PA network expansion has under-represented important sites. The paper concludes that better targeted expansion of PA networks would help to improve biodiversity trends.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Private protected areas: management regimes, tenure arrangements and protected area categorization »

  This review examines the challenges of developing protected area categorization beyond the traditional state-led model. We review private protected areas in Kenya and Tanzania, exploring their tenure, the nature of the private sector organizations managing them, and the extent of control exercised within them. Drawing on this we develop a working typology with the aim to encourage further discourse amongst the conservation community on the emerging phenomenon of private protected areas.

  Resource Type: Reports