Vital conservation data available on a laptop under UN-backed programme

Scientists studying the globe’s protected land and marine estate, firefighters on alert to douse a forest blaze, even tourists planning a holiday in a national park can benefit from a new United Nations-backed online database launched today that bridges vast distances with the click of a mouse.

The new product, a partnership between the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a network of more than 1,000 government and non-governmental member organizations (NGOs), allows users to zoom in, fly over and explore more than 100,000 sites via Google Earth.

“The information in this new system is at the heart of every decision we make at the nation, regional and global level for conservation,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner told the 5th World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

“Creating and maintaining national parks and protected areas is one of the most important commitments that nations make towards protecting endangered species, habitats, landscapes and local livelihoods,” he said.

The system allows users to view information on national parks and protected areas in their web browser, to visualize them in Google Earth, to download data, to bring together other important data like species information into the same portal and more.

Because of some of the new features in the system, the University of Maryland was able to develop a new feature that gives early warning of forest fires via e-mail. This should assist rangers to rapidly mobilize fire-fighting operations, reducing the risk of serious damage to one of these economically important natural assets.

“At UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre we are trying to remain in the vanguard of making conservation information readily available to the world,” UNEP-WCMC Director Jon Hutton said. “We have a long history of compiling information on the state of the world’s biodiversity.”

Speaking as one of the Proteus Partners, a coalition of oil, gas, mineral and mining and information technology companies which have contributed more than $2 million to the initiative, Liz Rogers from energy company BP, cited the benefits the information can bring to their field.

“Companies that have the potential to impact nature should invest in information that will ensure they can minimize their impact on nature and thereby lower their risk profile,” she said. “Linking the information systems of the oil companies with those of conservation organizations so that we can avoid or minimize damage to protected areas and sensitive environments makes sense not only from an ethical perspective, but also from an economic one.”

The Head of the Protected Areas Programme at UNEP-WCMC Charles Besançon noted that a fundamental challenge for everyone involved with conservation is access to information. “From the rangers working on the ground, to the planning of new projects by the biggest corporations and environmental bodies, critical information made more accessible allows us to be much more proactive instead of reactive as we face the environmental challenges ahead,” he said.

“This is really just the tip of the iceberg about the types of monitoring that are possible with these technologies that allow the linking of real-time satellite data with protected areas boundaries.”