The United Nations Environment Programme's 'World Conservation Monitoring Centre' or 'UNEP-WCMC' is an executive agency of the
United Nations Environment Programme, based in
Cambridge in the
United Kingdom. UNEP-WCMC has been part of UNEP since 2000, and has responsibility for
biodiversity assessment and support to policy development and implementation. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre was previously an independent organization jointly managed by IUCN, UNEP and WWF established in 1988, and prior to that the Centre was a part of the IUCN Secretariat.
The activities of UNEP-WCMC include biodiversity assessment, support to international conventions such as the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), capacity building and management of both aspatial and spatial data on species and habitats of conservation concern.
Areas of work
UNEP-WCMC has a mandate to facilitate the delivery of the global indicators under the CBD's
2010 biodiversity target on the rate of loss of biological diversity. It also manages the World Database of Protected Areas in collaboration with the
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. A series of world atlases on biodiversity topics have been published by UNEP-WCMC through
University of California Press.
External links
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UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
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2010 biodiversity indicators
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Convention on Biological Diversity
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Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
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Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS)