UNEP - WCMC
WCMC is a UK charity, based in Cambridge, which supports the United Nations Environment Programme. We work in collaboration with UNEP, under the banner of UNEP-WCMC. Our mission is to evaluate and highlight the many values of biodiversity and put authoritative biodiversity knowledge at the centre of decision-making.
UNEP-WCMC confronts the challenges faced by our world's biodiversity with knowledge, innovation and leadership. In partnership with UN Environment and based in Cambridge, the UK's conservation capital, we connect science, policy and society. Our access and influence empowers decision makers to create positive and sustainable impact for people and nature.
Our team is made up of experts in biodiversity and ecosystem services, social scientists, communications experts, ecological modellers, economists, policy analysts, lawyers, GIS specialists, data managers and software developers.
2019 is UNEP-WCMC's 40th anniversary. We continue to build on the achievements and impacts of the last four decades, bringing innovation and insights to the international policy community at this critical time for our planet.
Products and services
Evaluating Options and Trade-Offs
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are complex and the interactions between them and development processes are more complex still.
The issue
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are complex and the interactions between them and development processes are more complex still. With many diverse and conflicting demands on land and natural resources, understanding the likely impacts of current policy decisions on biodiversity is both crucial and challenging. Climate change adds to the complexity of this task.
Our approach
We explore how change is likely to affect ecosystem services and biodiversity by drawing on our skills in modelling ecosystem interactions and mapping spatial data.
As part of two projects funded by the MacArthur Foundation, we identified current and future trade-offs between the demand for commodities and biodiversity in the Andes, the Greater Mekong and Great Lakes of Africa regions.
The projects modelled current and plausible future land use change to find watersheds that are key for biodiversity and future provision of commodities, and are therefore likely to come under pressure in each region.
The projects integrated this into scenario-guided policy review processes in different countries. This strengthens land-use related policy relating to current and likely future impacts of agricultural development on ecosystems, and makes it more robust in the face of future uncertainty.
Our projects
Commodites and biodiversity in the Andes, Mekong, and East African Great Lakes Regions
Future scenarios to support policy review in the Lake Victoria Basin
REDD-PAC project: Assisting countries to plan for REDD+ and contribute to multiple policy objectives
Valuing Natural Capital
Nature provides innumerable services that underpin food security, human well-being and indeed, the global economy.
The issue
Nature provides innumerable services that underpin food security, human well-being and indeed, the global economy. These services are rarely valued in terms that can be entered into economic debates within national planning processes and, lacking visible value, they are often traded away inappropriately. If biodiversity and ecosystem services are to be incorporated into decision-making processes, they must be described in terms that decision makers can understand and use.
Our approach
UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre recognizes that not all values are monetary: biodiversity has intrinsic and cultural values beyond economics. We are exploring both monetary and non-monetary approaches to valuation but, if we want to engage decision makers from all sectors and encourage them to account for natural capital, we must frame the issues in terms of our main global indicator of value: money.
Mapping Hotspots and Priorities
Decision makers must choose where to focus their conservation efforts, what levels of resource utilization to permit and how to manage and control utilization in practice.
The issue
It is not possible to preserve all natural capital in every location across the globe. Decision makers must choose where to focus their conservation efforts, what levels of resource utilization to permit and how to manage and control utilization in practice. Some areas are more important than others for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and governments have made commitments through the Convention on Biological Diversity and other mechanisms to focus their management efforts on these areas. But where are these places?
Our approach
At UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre we specialize in mapping spatial data related to biodiversity and ecosystem services, to visualize ‘hotspots’ and facilitate discussion about priorities for conservation and management. Our in-depth understanding of the issues allows us to help formulate the standards for defining such areas, as well as identifying them in map layers. And with online tools, we’re opening new opportunities for stakeholders to feed into these processes.
Get in touchIdentifying the Causes of Change
We know that biodiversity is changing, and we can identify trends and directions in this change. In some cases we can attribute these to factors such as climate change, agricultural expansion, urbanization or pollution, but the underlying causes of change are rarely clear and simple.
The issue
We know that biodiversity is changing, and we can identify trends and directions in this change. In some cases we can attribute these to factors such as climate change, agricultural expansion, urbanization or pollution, but the underlying causes of change are rarely clear and simple. Many factors interact to cause the changes we see, and the results may be unpredictable.
In order to respond effectively to negative changes, we need to know what causes them. If ecosystem health is declining, what are the most important drivers of that change? How will those drivers interact and manifest themselves over time? Will declines continue to be gradual, or are there tipping points, beyond which irreversible change occurs?
Our approach
To answer such questions we use sophisticated models to recreate the dynamics and causality of biodiversity change. This enables us to understand where we are now and to extrapolate ahead to the future, in order to predict the likely causes and results of change over time.
Get in touchMeasuring Biodiversity Change
Biodiversity has many dimensions including variety, quantity, composition and distribution. Whichever of these we choose to measure, biodiversity is changing in unprecedented ways. To respond to this, we need to know what is changing, where, and at what rate.
The issue
Biodiversity has many dimensions including variety, quantity, composition and distribution. Whichever of these we choose to measure, biodiversity is changing in unprecedented ways. To respond to this, we need to know what is changing, where, and at what rate.
Our approach
UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre provides information to show the current status of biodiversity and how this is changing, using our own assessments and building on work done by others. We support national governments and regional bodies to develop and measure indicators of the state of biodiversity, and enable global reporting on biodiversity change. This kind of information is essential for tracking whether we are on course to meet targets like those adopted as part of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, and can help measure progress towards other global objectives like the Millennium Development Goals.
