UNEP

The UNESCO World Heritage List includes 217 properties recognized for their outstanding natural heritage values.

Published to coincide with the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, UNEP's 2012 Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5) calls on world leaders to take immediate action to address international environmental degradation and turn world-wide discussion of sustainable development into practice.

Asia has a rich cultural and natural heritage, but rapid development, population growth and an erosion of traditional practices are resulting in habitat loss and degradation, which is putting protected areas in Asia at risk and leading to serious decline in the biodiversity they harbour.

The Protected Planet Report series, launched in 2012, helps track international progress towards achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 - a target for the global protected area network and for other related targets.

This study focuses on pastoralism's current and future potential for securing sustainable managment and green economy outcomes from the world's rangelands.

Global spending on nature conservation is currently estimated at around US$50 billion per year. Most of this is public money, yet even this is far from sufficient to maintain biodiversity and the ecosystem services upon which our economies, livelihoods and well-being depend.

Water protection, food production, and ecosystem health are worldwide issues, and understanding the links between water, food production and ecosystems is important to the health of all three. This book shows how sustainable ecosystems are essential for water management and food production.

This document constitutes a summary of the work, studies and reflection initiated by the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) following the recommendations of the Contracting Parties in Almeria in January 2008.

Cranes, a flagship species of waterbirds, have great cultural significance - especially the Siberian Crane. Yet, even after decades of conservation efforts, cranes remain threatened with 11 species at risk.

<p>This report includes an inventory of data and information on the Iraqi marshland ecosystem; technical guidance on the assessment framework and tools for ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation with regard to the requirements for World Heritage nomination; and guidance on the d

This paper highlights the climate change mitigation potential of the African drylands and lays out various paths towards adaptation which should be supported to reduce the vulnerability of dryland populations and increase their food security.

This report summarises the experiences and lessons learnt from the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP), as well as providing details of 27 global indicators developed in support of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)'s 2010 Biodiversity Target.

The conservation status of the toothed whales has worsened dramatically since 2001. Since then, more species have been listed in the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable and Nearly Threatended, while the Baiji river dolphin, which used to live in the Yangtze River, is now probably extinct.

The report analyses the different ways for quantifying and accounting for water flows and productivity within the economy (including environmental needs).

This report inventories and analyses the range of international laws that protect the environment during armed conflict.

This document discusses the need to balance short-term water productivity gains – in particular in agriculture - with the long-term role that water flows provide for maintaining sustainable landscape ecosystem services (ESS), and serving multiple benefits to human well-being.

This report provides a solid foundation for the concept of decoupling, clearly defining key terms and providing empirical evidence of escalating resource use. It shows that decoupling is already taking place to some extent, but is lagging far behind its potential.

This report represents the best available understanding as to what has happened to the environment of Ogoniland – and the corresponding implications for affected populations – over many years of oil industry operations.

The proceedings of the World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3), issued as a three-CD boxed set, presents the outcomes and organization of the Conference. The CD set also contains some relevant background material and a brief follow-up

This report is a contribution to the UN's International Year of Biodiversity and is a complement to the UNEP-hosted Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) which is bringing visibility to the wealth of the world's natural capital.