Historically data has been collected through requests (every 4-5 years) for data updates from national agencies in preparation for the production of the UN List of Protected Areas.

UNEP-WCMC is also developing one-to-one agreements with national agencies to ensure the provisions and availability of up-to-date data.. For example, in 2003 an agreement was signed with the Russian Protected Areas Laboratory to cover Russian protected areas, which number in excess of 11,000 sites and cover more than 1.5 million km around 8% of the world's total protected areas.

In the interests of improving the WDPA UNEP-WCMC is also working with a wide range of partners, many of whom work with government agencies at the national level, on an ongoing basis.

On a regional basis UNEP-WCMC also works with inter-governmental partners in the provision of protected area information. The most longstanding collaboration is with the European Environment Agency (EEA) who have responsibility for the European countries. The European data is available through the Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA). EEA has appointed the European Topic Centre on Nature Protection and Biodiversity (ETC/NPB) to manage the database and liaise with national focal points. The national European data is then transfered by the ETC/NPB from the CDDA to the WDPA maintained by UNEP-WCMC, which also provides information to the CDDA on international sites. In Southeast Asia UNEP-WCMC collaborates with the ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC) in obtaining protected area information for that region.