UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center

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UNEP World Monitoring Center for Nature Conservation

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legal form
founding 1979 (at the IUCN, since July 8, 2000 at the UN)
Seat Cambridge United KingdomUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management Jon Hutton , director
Number of employees 60
sales US $ 6.6 million in 2008
Branch Conservation organization
Website www.unep-wcmc.org

The UNEP World Monitoring Center for Nature Conservation , shortly UNEP-WCMC (of English United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center , and World Conservation Monitoring Center ), is an executive body of the intergovernmental environmental organization of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). UNEP-WCMC, based in Cambridge , Great Britain , was established on July 8, 2000 as a cooperation between UNEP and the England-based nature conservation organization WCMC 2000Founded with the aim of supporting UNEP in collecting data on biodiversity , conducting appropriate scientific research on request and making recommendations for the creation of guidelines on species protection .

While for the UNEP the advantage of the cooperation with the WCMC 2000 was to get access to biodiversity information and support for decision-making in matters of species protection, the WCMC 2000 saw its advantage in increasing its access and influence on decision-makers better enforce their goals in terms of species protection.

history

The roots of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center go back to 1979 when the institute was founded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in Cambridge with the aim of monitoring the development of endangered species in the world and to be documented accordingly. In 1988 the institute was then incorporated into a joint venture through which the World Conservation Monitoring Center was founded.

The founding organizations included the IUCN itself, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The newly created independent non-profit organization , which received charity status in Great Britain on January 9, 1989 , gained international recognition in the following years for its activities in matters of worldwide species protection. In July 2000 the cooperation with UNEP followed, as a result of which the World Conservation Monitoring Center gave up its name and renamed itself WCMC 2000. The newly created company was called the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center and has been under the control of the UN ever since .

activities

One Ocean Programs

In 2007 the UNEP-WCMC decided to summarize its data and its knowledge about the oceans and to design a program that reflects the interaction in the oceans and the importance that biodiversity has for the oceans and their coastal regions. The program should take into account the information needs of the most diverse interest groups and people all over the world, provide necessary information and make processes and relationships understandable. The program is still active.

Evaluation of the ecosystem

The program was started in 2006 to meet the growing need for information on the status and development trends of the world ecosystem . It was based on the assessment and evaluation of biodiversity and tried on this basis to prepare the best possible information available for a broad mass of decision-makers. The program is still active.

Climate change and biodiversity

With this, the UNEP-WCMC tries to document the connections between climate changes and their influences on biodiversity and to make them accessible to decision-makers. The program was started in 1998, at that time by the World Conservation Monitoring Center , and refers to a long list of workshops and conferences on this topic.

Nature reserves and world cultural heritage

A database for protected areas in the world was set up as early as 1981 . Today, the database even goes beyond the protected areas and also includes areas that are not yet categorized according to the IUCN classification but could be considered worthy of protection. Today, the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) can be described as the largest of its kind and may be. a. also used to obtain information in the event of environmental disasters .

Furthermore, the Vision 2020 project aims to better examine and understand the human impact on protected areas via a long-term study . The aim is to use this long-term view to develop better concepts and strategies for longer periods of time.

Proteus 2012

The Proteus 2012 project already had a predecessor, which was to run for 5 years from 2004. The aim of the project at the time was to make biodiversity information better and more freely available to the world. In 2007, after only three years, the project was reconsidered and expanded. The goal by 2012 is now:

  • to make the already available database WDPA available to the public in the best possible way.
  • to work together with other leading organizations of the protection of species and to link their existing information with the WDPA database, to integrate and to make it fully compatible, so that e.g. B. Decision-makers can always have the best possible information about the possible effects of their decision.
  • using a wiki-like browser tool to create the possibility of continuously updating information about critical processes on the coasts and in the coastal ecosystem.

Online data and publications

The UNEP-WCMC offers a. extensive and freely available information online on the topics:

  • Interactive Maps
  • Species information
  • Global Biodiversity Atlases
  • Critical Ecosystems
  • Biodiversity Indicators
  • International Policy
  • Emergency response
  • Computational tools
  • UNEP-WCMC Publications

on, each in the English language .

A list of all available publications can be found here under the individual references.

literature

  • Annual Report 2008 , UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center, Cambridge, UK, July 2009.
  • Framework Document - Policy, Resources and Accountability for UNEP-ECMC , United Nations Environment Program - World Conservation Monitoring Center, Cambridge, UK, June 15, 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Out History . WCMC UK , archived from the original on January 18, 2016 ; accessed on January 17, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. About Us . In: UNEP-WCMC . UNEP , 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  3. ^ Biodiversity Data Sourcebook , World Conservation Press, Cambridge, UK, 1994. ISBN 1-899628-00-2
  4. ^ Register of Charities - WCMC 2000 - Charity Commission (UK) - (accessed March 27, 2012)
  5. ^ Marine Assessment and Decision Support . In: UNEP-WCMC . UNEP , 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  6. Ecosystem Assessment . In: UNEP-WCMC . UNEP , 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  7. ^ Climate Change and Biodiversity . In: UNEP-WCMC . UNEP , 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  8. Explore Protected Areas - database of protected areas (accessed March 27, 2012)
  9. Proteus 2012 . UNEP-WCMC , archived from the original on September 15, 2008 ; accessed on January 20, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  10. Datasets, Tools & Reports . In: UNEP-WCMC . UNEP , 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2012 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).