About us

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) works with scientists and policy makers worldwide to place biodiversity at the heart of environment and development decision-making to enable enlightened choices for people and the planet. Our 100-strong international team are recognised leaders in their field and have unrivalled understanding of the institutional landscape surrounding biodiversity policy and ecosystem management. Based in Cambridge, UK, UNEP-WCMC is a collaboration between UN Environment Programme and the UK charity, WCMC.

Using our significant experience of supporting the biodiversity information needs of decision makers across a variety of sectors, our linkages to the UN system and thereby intergovernmental environmental processes, the menu of services that we can provide to countries includes delivering and developing capacity on:

1. Biodiversity information systems addressing data access, data management, data processing , including:
   
   • Identifying data sources
   • Data management, standards and analysis, including the capacity of national statistics offices to respond to international requirements
   • Ecosystem assessments and natural capital accounting, tools to measure the state of the natural environment and its ability to provide services, and to evaluate the impact of public and private sector management/investment in natural capital and green infrastructure
   • Indicators for monitoring and reporting progress
   • Portals for practitioners and decision-makers to access information
2. Policy analysis and advising policy, strategy and plan development to support policy development so that it is consistent with international environmental agreements
3. Building relationships between different decision-makers to integrate biodiversity into development/sectoral planning through workshops, peer-to-peer learning, guidance documents, and tools.
4. Environmental safeguards and standards development to avoid negative and enhance positive impacts on the environment
5. Spatial planning, scenarios and modelling allowing the visualisation of trade-offs and potential synergies between competing land and marine uses and resource patterns.
6. Facilitating the sharing of skills and knowledge on biodiversity and natural capital through training, guidance materials and developing networks and partnerships

We have experience of working with decision makers at national, regional and local scales in the following sectors: environment, climate change, agriculture, oil, gas, mining, finance, fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism. This has involved working with various levels of government, the UN system, private sectors, research institutions, non-governmental organisations, and local communities.

Our vision

A world where decision makers in all sectors and at all levels recognize and take full account of the values of biodiversity as the bedrock of a global green economy and human well-being.

We are concerned with the multiple values of biodiversity, particularly where it is at risk, and the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services that deliver human benefits.

Our mission

To provide authoritative information about biodiversity and ecosystem services in a way that is useful to decision makers who are driving change in environment and development policy.

By working with expert partners worldwide, we draw together, analyse and interpret information on biodiversity, and strengthen the ability of others to do so.