The platform Ocean+ Habitats was developed to provide information on the location and distribution of key marine and coastal habitats, as well as track the global conservation status of these habitats.

This iteration of the platform will provide global and national statistics on warm- and cold-water corals, saltmarshes, mangroves and seagrass habitats around the world, and connect them with the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) to illustrate where each habitat overlaps with the global protected area network, therefore highlighting new priority areas for protection.

Additionally, the conservation status of habitat-providing species will be highlighted with data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, providing an overview of the extinction risk faced by important marine species.

Ocean+ Habitats aims to assist with tracking progress towards multiple targets in the current Aichi and emerging post-2020 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in which marine and coastal areas will play a major role.

Policy- and decision makers, as well as other stakeholders, can use Ocean+ Habitats to gain a better understanding of the conservation status of these key coastal habitats to achieve the shared goal of reducing biodiversity loss and preserving a variety of indispensable habitats. This knowledge can also assist in efforts to restore these important habitats, contributing to the aims of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

The launch will be live streamed on YouTube and Facebook, and will consist of quick fire presentations followed by a Q&A.

Please submit any questions to: events@unep-wcmc.org

We will also be taking live questions during the session via YouTube and Facebook.

Featured speakers:

Ake Rosenqvist, Global Mangrove Watch
Corli Pretorius, Deputy Director, UNEP-WCMC
Craig Hilton-Taylor, Head of Red List Unit, IUCN
Leticia Carvalho, Head of Marine and Freshwater, UNEP
Sara Pruckner, Programme Officer, UNEP-WCMC

Moderated by: Lauren Weatherdon, Senior Programme Officer, UNEP-WCMC

Ocean+ Habitats 2021 Launch