1 August 2014: The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has produced a composite map of the marine and terrestrial ecosystem assets of the world.

The map, published in the report titled ‘Towards a Global Map of Natural Capital: Key Ecosystem Assets,’ combines a number of existing spatial data sets to provide physical assessment of stocks in six main areas: freshwater resources, soil quality for plant growth, terrestrial carbon, terrestrial biodiversity, marine biodiversity, and marine fisheries.

The map reveals that the highest concentrations of terrestrial ecosystem assets are in the equatorial regions, as well as portions of Canada and the Russian Federation, while marine assets are greatest in Southeast Asia and the coastlines of Africa, Europe and South America. The report describes these ecosystem assets and the conceptual foundations for natural capital in more detail, as well as background information on their connection to key policy drivers and players, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) project.

This information is intended to help governments account for natural capital and improve decision-making by providing information on the relationship between natural capital and human welfare, tradeoffs between different assets and ecosystem services, and the effects of land-use change on natural capital, according to the WCMC. The map was prepared for UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment as the first in a series of reports. Future reports will map natural resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels, as well as the monetary value of ecosystem assets, to provide a comprehensive picture of natural capital. [UNEP-WCMC Press Release] [Publication: Towards a Global Map of Natural Capital: Key Ecosystem Assets]