Nature Map Consortium Present New Global Datasets of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

February 28, 2020

By SDSN

On February 6th, 2020, UNEP-WCMC organized Nature Map Webinar: Mapping nature and its benefits to jointly address biodiversity loss and climate change with the participation of all scientists involved in Nature Map, who introduced the work on global priorities for habitat conservation and restoration and the new global datasets of biodiversity and ecosystem services that underpin it.

Nature Map synthesizes the best available data to produce integrated global maps on biodiversity, carbon and ecosystem services using methodologies that are globally consistent and draw on local data. The combination of these maps has been used to identify areas of global significance for conservation and restoration, which could help to identify areas where conservation and restoration actions would provide the highest benefits for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and potentially other ecosystem services.

The webinar was aimed at presenting this work to CBD national focal points and interested parties. With over 130 attendees, the Nature Map team also explored its potential applications to support in-country conservation and climate action efforts. A recording of the webinar is available here.

The preliminary project results are now available for review at Nature Map Explorer ( https://explorer.naturemap.earth/ ). This web platform was designed for expert visualization to facilitate peer-review and consultation with interested parties. Receiving feedback is vital to improve the maps. Please register at Nature Map Explorer and let us know your thoughts.

Nature Map gratefully acknowledges financial support from Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).