World Database on Protected Areas

The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 200,000 protected areas as of October 2017, with records covering 245 countries and territories throughout the world. The WDPA is a joint venture between the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 200,000 protected areas as of October 2017, with records covering 245 countries and territories throughout the world. The WDPA is a joint venture between the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Data for the WDPA is collected from international convention secretariats, governments and collaborating NGOs, but the role of custodian is allocated to the Protected Areas Programme of UNEP-WCMC, based in Cambridge, UK, who have hosted the database since its creation in 1981. The WDPA delivers invaluable information to decision-makers around the world, particularly in terms of measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. In October 2010, UNEP-WCMC launched the social media-based website Protected Planet, which allows users to interact with and improve the data that is currently recorded on the World Database on Protected Areas. The WDPA uses the IUCN's definition of a protected area as the main criteria for entries to be included in the database.The database contains comprehensive information on the different types of protected areas ranging from those strictly protected for conservation purposes to those where sustainable use of natural resources is allowed; and includes government, co-managed, private and community-managed areas. The IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas gives international guidance on the categorisation of protected areas, through its Protected Area Management Categories. These categories are recognised worldwide and facilitate a global system for defining and recording protected areas. Within the WPDA the IUCN Management Category of a protected area is listed (if one has been assigned/reported) as part of the information on a protected area. Data held in the WDPA is made up of both 'attribute' and 'spatial' information. Attribute data refers to the characteristics of a protected area, such as its name, reported area and designation type. Spatial data is provided in the form of Geographical Information System (GIS) electronic maps, often referred to as shapefiles. These files provide information on the location (latitude & longitude) and spatial extent of a protected area, either as a midpoint location or a polygon that shows the boundaries of a protected area, which gives the indication of its size and shape. This is the form that the data takes on Protected Planet through which the data on WDPA is available for public use worldwide. The WDPA Development Team at UNEP-WCMC has a formal agreement with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to integrate their network species occurrence data with the shapefiles of protected areas on the WDPA, which assists governmental, non-governmental and private organisations to visualise the density of species within a protected area.