Loki
10-19-2010, 08:44 PM
UN turns to wiki power for wildlife conservation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11574873)
The UN Environment Programme is turning to the wiki-world in an attempt to improve protection of the natural one.
Its new venture - protectedplanet.net (http://www.protectedplanet.net/) - aims to help people visit little-known protected areas, so generating revenue and improving knowledge about them.
The launch at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting came amid reports warning that protection of the sea needs to be increased rapidly.
A target to protect 10% of oceans by 2012 will be missed by a long way.
Protected areas are one of the most effective ways of safeguarding plants, animals and ecosystems, said Charles Besancon, head of the protected areas programme at the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
"We know national parks and protected areas are important for many functions - they provide fresh water to one-third of the world's largest urban areas, they protect carbon, they protect endangered species," he told BBC News.
"For example, the last 600 mountain gorillas are in protected areas surrounded by communities - without the protected areas, we'd lose the mountain gorilla."
Unep maintains a database of protected areas around the world, based on data from governments and other authorities.
But with an estimated 150,000 sites in existence, data on what is in the sites and how they are protected is, in many cases, scanty.
"[The database] doesn't get updated as much as we'd like; so we've recognised that the best way is to reach out to the public," said Mr Besancon.
More ... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11574873)
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I checked it out and it looks to be a great resource! :thumb001:
The UN Environment Programme is turning to the wiki-world in an attempt to improve protection of the natural one.
Its new venture - protectedplanet.net (http://www.protectedplanet.net/) - aims to help people visit little-known protected areas, so generating revenue and improving knowledge about them.
The launch at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting came amid reports warning that protection of the sea needs to be increased rapidly.
A target to protect 10% of oceans by 2012 will be missed by a long way.
Protected areas are one of the most effective ways of safeguarding plants, animals and ecosystems, said Charles Besancon, head of the protected areas programme at the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
"We know national parks and protected areas are important for many functions - they provide fresh water to one-third of the world's largest urban areas, they protect carbon, they protect endangered species," he told BBC News.
"For example, the last 600 mountain gorillas are in protected areas surrounded by communities - without the protected areas, we'd lose the mountain gorilla."
Unep maintains a database of protected areas around the world, based on data from governments and other authorities.
But with an estimated 150,000 sites in existence, data on what is in the sites and how they are protected is, in many cases, scanty.
"[The database] doesn't get updated as much as we'd like; so we've recognised that the best way is to reach out to the public," said Mr Besancon.
More ... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11574873)
==============================================
I checked it out and it looks to be a great resource! :thumb001: