Eight scientists and geographers at the Nature Conservancy have spent the past three years charting the health of different ecosystems across the globe to create the Atlas of Global Conservation. The detailed ecosystem-level mapping project will be unveiled in book form on Earth Day 2010 in cooperation with the University of California Press. An interactive map of the data can be explored online now.
The intent of this exercise was to map such conservation topics as where forests are disappearing most rapidly, where and which species are in danger of extinction, where animal populations are most heavily concentrated, and where nature is thriving. To achieve this goal, the project team collaborated with more than 70 institutions who willingly shared their data. The compilation of multiple data sets into one database pulls together lifetimes of scientific research, representing the work of thousands of scientists.
The effort compiles in one place details from the three types of habitats that exist (terrestrial, freshwater and marine) to pull together a first-ever glimpse at a global scale of such ecosystems. The maps also chronicle the locations of high concentrations of freshwater birds, seabirds and marine mammals.
This global effort was started as an internal project to meet the mission of the Nature Conservancy to conserve 10 percent of the world’s nature by 2015. While the maps reveal areas of great environmental degradation, they also help to pinpoint areas of hope where nature is thriving and international cooperation has made a positive impact.
