WCMC

A major analysis of the protection status of the world's forests. This has produced an unprecedented amount of data on forest location, by type, and the amount of each forest type protected in each region of the world. Contains all the GIS spatial data files on forests, protected areas and ecological zones that went into the analysis.

This study makes use of extensive spatial datasets, not previously available, to provide for the first time a comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of biodiversity in the terrestrial tropics. The extent to which potential habitats and closed moist forests are represented in protected areas is assessed. Priorities for conservation action are identified on the basis of a country's relative importance for a given habitat and the extent to which it is protected.

Marine waters comprise by far the most extensive major ecosystem on the planet. WCMC has produced a region by region account of select issues in marine biological diversity: descriptive text on marine ecosystems, elements of biodiversity (including estimates of species richness and endemism), and marine fisheries. The aim is to help develop an integrated approach to management of marine and coastal biodiversity.

First edited in English, this is the first fully comprehensive study of the current state of the tropical moist forests of Africa. African moist forests, containing well over half the continent's biological diversity, are disappearing at a rate of about 2 per year, the fastest in the world.

This work includes 140 pages of tabular data with supporting text and graphics, covering country species diversity, threatened species, national Red Data Book, major food crops, domestic livestock, marine resources, tropical forests, protected areas and systematics collections.

The "1994 Red List of Threatened Animals" was a major advance on its predecessors in clarity of layout and amount of information presented. This is taken further in the 1996 edition, which is also the first global compilation to use the complete new IUCN red list category system. Also for the first time, all mammal species have been assessed. This group and the birds are the only taxonomic classes where a comprehensive evaluation has been made.

Outlines approaches to assessment of the status and sustainability of national biodiversity. Methods are introduced for biodiversity survey, assessment of the status of species and habitats, and identification of local users of biological resources and the importance and impacts of such use.

The threats to the forests of tropical America have been the centre of international environmental concern for some time, yet the material in this atlas highlights the continuing extent of scientific uncertainty over the critical issues that will determine the future use and conservation of these forests. Preceded by Asia and the Pacific, 1991; Africa, 1992 (both now out of print), this atlas completes the series.