The UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) released its 2014 annual report, highlighting the Centre's work in support of biodiversity-related decision making, including the world's first mapping of marine and terrestrial ecosystem assets.
In a foreword, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner highlights the Centre's potential role in providing information tailored to the needs of decision makers, particularly within the emerging post-2015 development agenda effort.
June 2015: The UN Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) released its 2014 annual report, highlighting the Centre’s work in support of biodiversity-related decision making, including the world’s first mapping of marine and terrestrial ecosystem assets.
The assets mapped include freshwater resources, soil quality, organic carbon, terrestrial and marine biodiversity and global fish catch. The Annual Report 2015 said that information from these maps can help assess sustainability and the relationship between natural capital distribution and human welfare, land-use planning and change, and the potential trade-offs between different assets and services.
The report lists other examples of UNEP-WCMC’s work in bridging the science-policy gap, such as its assessment of progress towards the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which informed decisions made at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 12), the Protected Planet report launched at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, and the fourth Global Biodiversity Outlook report (GBO-4). It also highlights UNEP-WCMC’s ‘Proteus’ initiative, a collaboration with the extractives sector to provide companies with the data needed to integrate biodiversity into decision-making processes.
Other work carried out in 2014 included UNEP-WCMC’s recommendations to the Animals and Plants Committees of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and development of an online reporting system to streamline reporting under various biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
The Centre published 44 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals during the year.
In a foreword to the report, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner highlights the Centre’s potential role in providing information tailored to the needs of decision makers, particularly within the emerging post-2015 development agenda effort. [Publication: Report on Achievements for the year 2014: Putting Biodiversity at the Heart of Decision Making] [UNEP-WCMC Website]