Open and free access to digital biodiversity data needed to best manage Protected Areas has been limited until now. Relevant data sources are either not accessible online or only offer restricted access.
A new action taking place under the ECOPOTENTIAL project – run by UN Environment and partners - will take new Earth Observation data and use it to model and assess changes to the health of ecosystems.
Combined with open data sharing, satellite imagery can help improve our understanding of how deforestation, climate change and other threats affect Protected Areas and find solutions to them.
UN Environment is therefore helping park managers from the Sierra Nevada, Wadden Sea, the Danube Delta and other Protected Areas across Europe and beyond to see how they can practically use Earth Observation data and related state-of-the-art tools.
These include Remote Sensing products like photographs and infrared images from satellites, in-situ monitoring data such as soil and water samples, as well as modelling tools for ecosystems, their functions and services.
Protected Areas and their networks are essential policy responses to habitat loss and fragmentation and are a key means of reducing biodiversity decline and loss.
ECOPOTENTIAL is funded by the European Union under its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
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