Ocean Data Viewer

Decision
CBD Programme of Work on Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity
Datasets Covered

Summary
Since its inception, several decisions have influenced the direction of this particular theme and the eventual development of the programme. In 1995, at COP2, it was already requested that a study be completed regarding the bio-prospecting of genetic resources of the deep seabed in consultation with the secretariat of UNCLOS II/10, paragraph 12. Also at COP 2, the Ministerial Statement on the Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity referred to the new global consensus on the importance of marine and coastal biological diversity as the “Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity”. The key programme elements include integrated marine and coastal area management, marine and coastal living resources, marine and coastal protected areas, mariculture and alien species and genotypes. Further COP meetings provided additional insights into key issues such as coral bleaching and related biodiversity loss as well as the needs of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Established
Elaborated POW adopted at CBD COP 7, February 2004

Key Points
At COP5, marine and coastal protected areas and mariculture became more significant. This provided the opportunity to expand the programme of work with increased relations including UNESCO and the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, which also included discussion of joint work programmes. High seas biodiversity was later added at COP7 and has become a significant issue in current discussions, particularly with reference to recognising threats, impacts, and the need for spatial protection and sustainable management using a step-wise process. As progress has been made on the programme over time, enabling activities have been added to help overcome obstacles with its implementation. In addition, relevant activities from the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development have been incorporated into the programme of work. By the 9th COP, the impacts of climate change, including ocean acidification and fertilization, became clearly embedded in the agenda.

Links
To learn more, visit the COP decision webpage

Tools in partnership with UNEP-WCMC

2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP)
The 2010 BIP, hosted by UNEP-WCMC, is a global initiative to track progress towards achieving the CBD’s “2010 biodiversity target” to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The Partnership brings together many international organizations working on indicators, to provide the best available information on biodiversity trends.

GRAME Database
In support of a proposed UN Regular Process for the Global Reporting and Assessment of the Marine Environment, including Socio-Economic Aspects, this is a searchable database of over 1000 relevant assessments, scientific research studies and data holdings at a range of scales.
Coral Reef Watch
The Coral Reef Watch mission is to utilize remote sensing and in situ tools for near-real-time and long term monitoring, modeling and reporting of physical environmental conditions of coral reef ecosystems.

Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool
IBAT for business is an innovative tool designed to facilitate access to accurate and up-to-date biodiversity information to support critical business decisions. The tool is the result of a ground-breaking conservation partnership among BirdLife International, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature and UNEP-WCMC.
Habitat Validation Tool
This tool allows basic editing and validation of coastal habitat data and is being tested with the Global Distribution of Coral Reefs (2010) and the African subset of the USGS Global Distribution of Mangrove (2000) dataset. This tool will ultimately improve the accuracy of coastal habitat datasets supporting better decision-making. It forms part of our work under the Better Data, Better Decisions Initiative.

Protected Planet
This new interactive website provides data from the World Database on Protected Areas, a partnership between UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, and presents it in combination with other data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Wikipedia, Flickr, and Panoramio. It also provides statistics about protected areas by country.
Global Island Database
The Global Island Database aims to enhance the participation and role of islands in international decision-making through identifying and bringing together existing sources of data and information relevant to island systems, and presenting new analyses to aid resource managers and decision-making.

Coral Disease Database
The first version of the GCDD was launched in 2000 and was populated with some 2000 points of data from 155 references, mostly peer reviewed scientific literature. more.