Mapping hotspots and priorities
The issue
It is not possible to preserve all natural capital in every location across the globe. Decision makers must choose where to focus their conservation efforts, what levels of resource utilization to permit and how to manage and control utilization in practice. Some areas are more important than others for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and governments have made commitments through the Convention on Biological Diversity and other mechanisms to focus their management efforts on these areas. But where are these places?
Our approach
At UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre we specialize in mapping spatial data related to biodiversity and ecosystem services, to visualize ‘hotspots’ and facilitate discussion about priorities for conservation and management. Our in-depth understanding of the issues allows us to help formulate the standards for defining such areas, as well as identifying them in map layers. And with online tools, we’re opening new opportunities for stakeholders to feed into these processes.