1. Contact point in international agency

Lucy Fish
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) Data Manager
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
219 Huntingdon Road
Cambridge
CB3 0DL, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1223 277314
Email: lucy.fish@unep-wcmc.org and protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org

2. Definition

The unit of measure in this indicator is a "protected area". The World Conservation Union - IUCN, defines a protected area as an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.

"Designated" is defined as: the authority that corresponds according to national legislation or common practice (e.g. by means of an executive decree or the like) officially endorses a document of designation.

3. Method of computation

The size of the protected area is the officially documented extent provided by the national authority unless otherwise stated. The total protected area extent by country/territory is then divided by total territorial area of the country/territory (includes total land area, inland waters and territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles) Protected areas increase with time and are not deleted from subsequent years. The data used in this calculation is current to the 31st January 2007.

4. Comments and limitations

The ratio of territorial area protected is a useful indicator of Government's will to protect biodiversity. However it is not an indication of how well managed the area is nor confirmation that protection measures are actually in force. The indicator provides no information on areas that are not designated as protected but may also be important for conserving biodiversity. In addition, there are known data gaps that exist in some countries/regions resulting from a lack of reporting capacity.

5. Process of obtaining data

A major source of information is through the UN List process that takes place every 4-5 years; the last one conducted in 2003. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) Consortium established in 2002 brought together a number of international conservation organizations to ensure protected areas information are maintained on a cooperative basis. Collaborative projects such as 'Seas Around Us - MPA Global' have served to improve the collection and quality of marine protected areas data. Partnerships such as the one between UNEP-WCMC and the European Environment Agency have aided the collection of information on a regional scale. Data are constantly updated in the WDPA as new information is received from national authorities and NGOs.

6. Treatment of missing values

Where the size of the protected area has not been provided by the national authority and polygon boundaries exist it is possible to calculate the GIS area. Where boundaries are not present and no size given, the site is included in statistics. Sites with missing establishment dates are included in country level time series and in world and regional totals but are excluded from regional and world time series. Where no update is received for the following year the total number and area protected is assumed to be equal to previous year. Countries (e.g. Antarctica) that do not fall into MDG regions have been added to the world total.

For a number of countries (particularly islands e.g. Tuvalu) although they have territorial waters the current data source used for the 2006 MDG calculations does not always record their extent. Therefore when calculating the total territorial area (which includes total land area, inland waters and territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles) the territorial waters contribution will be zero. This has led to a number of instances where the total percentage protected (using the calculation below) is 100%.

Calculating percentage protected of total territorial area:

Example. Tuvalu

This means that total area protected currently exceeds the total territorial area recorded for Tuvalu as the territorial waters (marine extent) is currently unknown.

For the 2007 edition of the UN MDG calculations UNEP-WCMC has obtained a more comprehensive data source of territorial waters information in order to ensure that the coverage of protected areas is not overestimated through missing territorial waters values.

7. Data availability

Geographic information systems (GIS) and other attribute data on all the world's protected areas are freely available for non-commercial use and available for download from http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa/. Data formatted specifically for the Millennium Development Goals can be found at http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa/mdgs/index.cfm

8. Regional and Global estimates

Regional estimates of protected area ratios are calculated by UNEP-WCMC. Estimates are based on the following 4 assumptions:

1. Once a protected area has been designated as protected it is not removed from the list of protected areas. New areas can be added and therefore data have been accumulated over time.
2. Sites with no establishment date are excluded for regional and world time series but included in world and regional totals.
3. When gaps appear in a time series, data for those years are assumed equal to previous years and filled accordingly.
4. MDG regions have been used in the aggregation process. Any countries or areas (e.g. Antarctica) not falling into one of these regions have only been added to the total aggregate of the world.

9. Expected time of release

A yearly release of the World Database on Protected Areas is available online in January 2008.