About this data collection
Protected areas are a key instrument for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services. Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines protected areas as “a geographically defined area, which is designated or regulated and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives.” In addition to protected areas, other related instruments include “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs), defined by the CBD as “a geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio–economic, and other locally relevant values.” Together, protected areas and OECMs are essential tools to support achievement of the three Rio Conventions – the CBD, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures are also essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including support to livelihoods, food and water security, disaster risk reduction, and climate mitigation and adaptation.
How to use this data collection
The Protected Area Collection provides a key resource for planners and decision-makers to identify opportunities for protected areas and OECMs to contribute to national biodiversity, including delivery of Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), as well as climate change and sustainable development priorities.
Explore the collection in three easy steps:
- Browse the key policy questions provided below.
- Select a question of interest to view a description of the map available, input data layers, and policy relevance.
- Click ‘View data’ to view a map that provides input to address the question.
Note: These policy-relevant questions and associated data layers are provided for users to develop their own prioritization when designing Protected Area strategies. While global layers from the UNBL public platform are used here, users may also want to consider using national data to create similar overlays via our UNBL workspaces.
ⓘ Data layers to address key policy-relevant questions
The World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM) was established in 2019, following the adoption of the OECM definition (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/cop/14/8) in 2018. Given that the database and definition were only recently developed, many governments have not yet reported data on OECMs, or have reported only a subset of their OECMs. Users should consider this when using the WD-OECM, and should not assume that countries without OECM data lack OECMs in reality, or that countries with OECM data have reported their full complement of OECMs. Users wishing to provide data on OECMs should contact UNEP-WCMC at OECM@unep-wcmc.org.
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intactness: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents intact ecosystems, protected areas and OECMs, identifying opportunities for further protecting or conserving remaining intact ecosystems. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representativeness: Protected areas | This map presents opportunities to visualize protected area representativeness of different ecological regions. Ecological regions are defined using the global system of ecoregions, which have been described for terrestrial and freshwater areas, marine coastal and shelf systems (to a depth of 200m) and surface pelagic waters. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representativeness: OECMs | This map presents opportunities to visualize OECMs representativeness of different ecological regions. Ecological regions are defined using the global system of ecoregions, which have been described for terrestrial and freshwater areas, marine coastal and shelf systems (to a depth of 200m) and surface pelagic waters. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representativeness: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents opportunities on where to increase protected area and OECMs representativeness of different ecological regions. Ecological regions are defined using the global system of ecoregions, which have been described for terrestrial and freshwater areas, marine coastal and shelf systems (to a depth of 200m) and surface pelagic waters. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas: protected areas | This map presents protected area coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). KBAs are sites that make significant contributions to the global persistence of biodiversity. The map helps prioritize new protected areas or OECMs that increase protection of critical sites for biodiversity. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas: OECMs | This map presents OECMs’ area coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). KBAs are sites that make significant contributions to the global persistence of biodiversity. The map helps prioritize new protected areas or OECMs that increase protection of critical sites for biodiversity. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents protected areas and OECMs’ area coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), identifying opportunities on where to expand protection and conservation of KBAs. KBAs are sites that make significant contributions to the global persistence of biodiversity. The map helps prioritize new protected areas or OECMs that increase protection of critical sites for biodiversity. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protection of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) | This map presents the status of protection of EBSAs and identifies potential new protected areas to increase protection of critical marine areas for biodiversity. EBSAs were identified following the scientific criteria adopted at COP-9 (Decision IX/20; see more at: https://www.cbd.int/ebsa/). Sites that meet the EBSA criteria may require enhanced conservation and management measures; this could be achieved through means including marine protected areas, OECMs, marine spatial planning, and impact assessment. | CBD |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total carbon: protected areas | This map presents the percent of carbon in protected areas, and identifies areas with high levels of total carbon currently outside of these areas, which could benefit from enhanced protection. Total carbon includes the estimated amounts of stored carbon from aboveground biomass carbon, global soil organic carbon (SOC) as well as carbon stored in marine sediments. | CBD, UNFCCC |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total carbon: OECMs | This map presents the percent of carbon in OECMs, and identifies areas with high levels of total carbon currently outside of these areas, which could benefit from enhanced protection. Total carbon includes the estimated amounts of stored carbon from aboveground biomass carbon, global soil organic carbon (SOC) as well as carbon stored in marine sediments. | CBD, UNFCCC |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total carbon: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents the percent of carbon in protected areas and OECMs, and identifies areas with high levels of total carbon currently outside of these areas, which could benefit from enhanced protection. Total carbon includes the estimated amounts of stored carbon from aboveground biomass carbon, global soil organic carbon (SOC) as well as carbon stored in marine sediments. | CBD, UNFCCC |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of key areas for water security: protected area | This map presents the degree of coverage of protected areas and the degree of intactness in areas important for the water security for major municipalities. | CBD, SDG 6.6 |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of key areas for water security: OECMs | This map presents the degree of coverage of OECMs and the degree of intactness in areas important for the water security for major municipalities. | CBD, SDG 6.6 |
|
| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage of key areas for water security: protected area and OECMs | This map presents the degree of coverage of protected areas and OECMs, and the degree of intactness, in areas important for the water security for major municipalities. | CBD, SDG 6.6 |
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| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human pressures: protected areas and OECMs | The datasets in these maps present measures of human pressure and habitat conversion within protected areas and OECMs, which may be viewed as potential proxies for management effectiveness. | CBD |
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| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest cover change: protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures | This map presents the effectiveness of protected areas and OECMs in maintaining their ecological condition over time, examining forest cover change. | CBD |
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| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents how well the terrestrial protected area estate and OECMs within each ecoregion are designed to support connectivity. | CBD |
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| Name | Description | Policy relevance | Included layers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem health: protected areas and OECMs | This map presents protected areas and OECMs that retain intact assemblages of large mammals | CBD |
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