Bastian Bomhard
Programme Officer, Protected Areas Programme
United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 277314
Fax: +44 (0)1223 277136
Postal Address:
219 Huntingdon Road
Cambridge, CB3 0DL, UK
E-mail: bastian.bomhard@unep-wcmc.org
Website:http://www.unep-wcmc.org, http://www.wdpa.org
The unit of measure in this indicator is a “protected area”. The World Conservation Union - IUCN, defines a protected area as an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.
"Designated" is defined as: the authority that corresponds according to national legislation or common practice (e.g. by means of an executive decree or the like) officially endorses a document of designation.
The size of the protected area is the officially documented extent provided by the national authority unless otherwise stated. The total protected area extent by country/territory is then divided by total territorial area of the country/territory (includes total land area, inland waters and territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles) Protected areas increase with time and are not deleted from subsequent years.
The ratio of territorial area protected is a useful indicator of Government’s will to protect biodiversity. However it is not an indication of how well managed the area is nor confirmation that protection measures are actually in force. The indicator provides no information on areas that are not designated as protected but may also be important for conserving biodiversity. In addition, there are known data gaps that exist in some countries/regions resulting from a lack of reporting capacity.
A major source of information is through the UN List process that takes place every 4-5 years; the last one conducted in 2003. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) Consortium established in 2002 brought together a number of international conservation organizations to ensure protected areas information are maintained on a cooperative basis. Collaborative projects such as ‘Seas Around Us – MPA Global’ have served to improve the collection and quality of marine protected areas data. Partnerships such as the one between UNEP-WCMC and the European Environment Agency have aided the collection of information on a regional scale. Data are constantly updated in the WDPA as new information is received from national authorities and NGOs.
Where the size of the protected area has not been provided by the national authority and polygon boundaries exist it is possible to calculate the GIS area. Where boundaries are not present and no size given, the site is included in statistics. Sites with missing establishment dates are included in country level time series and in world and regional totals but are excluded from regional and world time series. Where no update is received for the following year the total number and area protected is assumed to be equal to previous year. Countries (e.g. Antarctica) that do not fall into MDG regions have been added to the world total.
Geographic information systems (GIS) and other attribute data on all the world’s protected areas are freely available for non-commercial use and available for download from http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa/. Data formatted specifically for the Millennium Development Goals can be found at: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa/mdgs/index.cfm
Regional estimates of protected area ratios are calculated by UNEP-WCMC. Estimates are based on the following 4 assumptions:
A yearly release of the World Database on Protected Areas is available online in December.