Terms and Conditions of Use of the World Database on Protected Areas

Access to all WDPA data (or the "WDPA materials") is provided on the understanding that the end-user read and consents to be bound to the terms outlined in these Terms and Conditions of Use.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS DO NOT DOWNLOAD

NO COMMERCIAL USE
The WDPA and any derivatives must not be used or made available for any Commercial Purpose without permission. Any use of WDPA content by an individual or entity operating within or on behalf of or to the benefit of any organisation other than a not-for-profit organisation will be deemed to be for a Commercial Purpose and will constitute a breach of the Terms and Conditions. To apply for permission for commercial use please send an email to wdpacommercial@unep-wcmc.org outlining your needs.

NO SUB-LICENSING OR REDISTRIBUTING OF WDPA DATA
The WDPA may not be sub-licensed in whole or in part without permission. You may not redistribute the attributes or spatial data contained in the WDPA in whole or in part by any means including (but not limited to) digitally, via web downloads, through web services, interactive web maps or file transfer protocols. If you know of others who wish to use the WDPA we suggest you refer them to this website. If you wish to provide a service through which the attributes and/or spatial data of the WDPA are downloadable or otherwise made available for redistribution please contact protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org for further guidance.

PUBLISHING THE WDPA
You may publish the WDPA in whole or in part, including on-line, providing the attributes and spatial data are not downloadable. You must ensure that the latest released version of the WDPA Materials is being used and the year of release is visible. Material published online must provide a clear link to the original WDPA and the attribution below must be clearly visible in all publications. We recommend that you have the material reviewed by UNEP-WCMC and/or the IUCN-WCPA prior to publication and we require two copies of all published materials be lodged free of charge with the supplier of the dataset, preferably in electronic format via: protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org

ATTRIBUTION
You must ensure that the attribution set out below is always clearly reproduced in the use of any part of the WDPA in any format, so that individual users are made aware of it:

World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) Annual Release 2009 (web download version), February 2009. The WDPA is a joint product of UNEP and IUCN, prepared by UNEP-WCMC, supported by IUCN WCPA and working with Governments, the Secretariats of MEAs and collaborating NGOs. For further information protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org

WDPA UPDATES
Unless required to do so for specific analyses, you should not use any version of the WDPA after it has been superseded by a subsequent version. It is your responsibility to check if an update of the WDPA is available.

NO WARRANTY AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY
The WDPA is provided to you ‘as is’, and no warranty of any kind is given. In consideration of the rights granted in this download, you hereby waive and release UNEP, IUCN and WCMC 2000 from any liability whatsoever and howsoever arising in connection with use of the WDPA. You agree that this waiver and release is effective in any and every jurisdiction in the world. UNEP, IUCN and WCMC 2000 will not be responsible for negligence, strict liability or otherness in the use of WDPA data by you or other users as a result of WDPA data being posted on any website following this download. You download the WDPA at your own discretion and risk and are solely responsible in the event of any damage occurring to computer systems as a result of attempts to download WDPA data.

FEEDBACK AND REVISED INFORMATION
In order to keep the WDPA up to date, UNEP and IUCN would like you to provide feedback on the quality, reliability and accuracy of the WDPA. We also welcome revised information on the WDPA in the form of GIS data, electronic images, paper maps, tables, GPS coordinates, and/or in any other useable format. Such contributions should be free of restrictions. The objective is to improve the WDPA for the benefit of the global conservation community. You can register to submit electronic protected area data via the WDPA website.

LAW AND JURISDICTION
Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this download and the subsequent use of the WDPA shall be settled by amicable negotiation between you and the supplier of the dataset. Should attempts at amicable negotiation fail, any such dispute shall, upon request by either you or the supplier of the WDPA, be referred to arbitration in accordance with the UNCITRAL arbitration rules then prevailing.

COMMUNICATION
Any communication with respect to these Terms and Conditions and any issue arising from them shall be in writing, in English, and sent by email. The address for communication with the WDPA supplier is:protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their environmental, cultural or similar value. Countries often have extensive systems of protected areas developed over many years. These systems vary considerably country to country, depending on national needs and priorities, and on differences in legislative, institutional and financial support. Protected areas transcend different environments from the highest mountains to the deepest sea, across forests, deserts, lakes and even national boundaries (territories).

The WDPA uses the definition of a protected area (terrestrial, freshwater, and marine) as adopted by IUCN as the main criteria for a locations entry into the database.

A protected area is:
“A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values”.
_{Source: Dudley, N. (Editor) (2008). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. x + 86pp.}

The first key point of this definition is that the primary objective of the protected area is conservation of biological diversity. The second key point is that the protection is 'effective'. This will generally mean that the area is protected by an Act of Parliament, in the case of public land, or by a covenant or conservation agreement, in the case of privately owned, or indigenous land.

For more information on the IUCN protected area definition please see here.

Protected areas can be established by a number of legislative mechanisms from an Act of Parliament to a conservation agreement.

Typically many protected areas are established (or designated) within a countries national territory (including any maritime claims) using the appropriate legislation or agreement. These protected areas, within the WDPA, are classed as nationally designated.

However there are locations of significant environmental, cultural or natural value that should be protected irrespective of the territory on which they are located. These locations are often recognized, preserved and protected under an international treaty or convention. Within the WDPA these protected areas are classed as internationally recognized.

Protected areas can be both nationally designated and internationally recognized. In some cases an internationally recognized site can be composed of multiple national designated protected areas from different countries.

There are a number of globally and regionally recognized international treaties, conventions and agreements.

The most common global conventions are:

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites:
  UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.


• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB):
  The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), proposes an interdisciplinary research agenda and capacity building aiming to improve the relationship of people with their environment globally. Since its launch in 1970 MAB has concentrated on the development of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). The biosphere reserve concept was developed initially in 1974 and was substantially revised in 1995 with the adoption by the UNESCO General Conference of the Statutory Framework and the Seville Strategy for Biosphere Reserves.


• The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention):
  The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. The Convention entered into force in 1975 and now (as of August 2007) has 155 Contracting Parties, or member States, in all parts of the world. The mission of the Ramsar Convention, as adopted by the Parties in 1999 and refined in 2002, is “the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world”.
  (link to handy information sheet [PDF].)

There are a number of regional international conventions including:

• EC Birds Directive:
  In 1979, the European Community adopted the Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds (the 'Birds Directive'), in response to the 1979 Bern Convention on the conservation of European habitats and species (the 'Bern Convention'). The Directive provides a framework for the conservation and management of, and human interactions with, wild birds in Europe. It sets broad objectives for a wide range of activities, although the precise legal mechanisms for their achievement are at the discretion of each Member State.
  (Council Directive 79/409/EEC [PDF])


• EC Habitats Directive :
  In 1992 the European Community adopted Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (EC Habitats Directive). This is the means by which the Community meets its obligations as a signatory of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). The main aim of the EC Habitats Directive is to promote the maintenance of biodiversity by requiring Member States to take measures to maintain or restore natural habitats and wild species at a favorable conservation status, introducing robust protection for those habitats and species of European importance.
  (Council Directive 92/43/EEC)


• ASEAN Declaration on Heritage Parks:
  On 29 November 1984 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the member countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia, declared a group of ASEAN Heritage Parks selected from each countries existing protected areas system. They agreed that common cooperation is necessary to conserve and manage such parks and reserves including the setting up of regional conservation and management action as well a regional mechanism complementary to and supportive of national efforts at implementation of conservation measures.

Consistency in comparing protected areas across the World under the IUCN definition is achieved by the allocation and use of an internationally defined set of management categories, known as IUCN Protected Area Management Categories. The IUCN definition implies a common set of objectives for protected areas and the IUCN Category system in turn defines differences in management approaches. The WDPA also utilises the IUCN category system, as outlined below. IUCN categories are not applied to protected areas established under international conventions or agreements (e.g. UNESCO World Heritage Sites).

The categories include a definition outlining key aspects within the management intent of the protected area alongside an example designation. For more information and guidelines on the application of IUCN protected area management categories see here.

Category Ia: Strict nature reserve

Category Ia are strictly protected areas set aside to protect biodiversity and also possibly geological/geomorphological features, where human visitation, use and impacts are strictly controlled and limited to ensure protection of the conservation values. Such protected areas can serve as indispensable reference areas for scientific research and monitoring.

Category Ib: Wilderness area

Category Ib protected areas are usually large unmodified or slightly modified areas, retaining their natural character and influence, without permanent or significant human habitation, which are protected and managed so as to preserve their natural condition.

Category II: National park

Category II protected areas are large natural or near natural areas set aside to protect large-scale ecological processes, along with the complement of species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities.

Category III: Natural monument or feature

Category III protected areas are set aside to protect a specific natural monument, which can be a landform, sea mount, submarine cavern, geological feature such as a cave or even a living feature such as an ancient grove. They are generally quite small protected areas and often have high visitor value.

Category IV: Habitat/species management area

Category IV protected areas aim to protect particular species or habitats and management reflects this priority. Many category IV protected areas will need regular, active interventions to address the requirements of particular species or to maintain habitats, but this is not a requirement of the category.

Category V: Protected landscape/seascape

A protected area where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant ecological, biological, cultural and scenic value: and where safeguarding the integrity of this interaction is vital to protecting and sustaining the area and its associated nature conservation and other values.

Category VI: Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources

Category VI protected areas conserve ecosystems and habitats, together with associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems. They are generally large, with most of the area in a natural condition, where a proportion is under sustainable natural resource management and where low-level non-industrial use of natural resources compatible with nature conservation is seen as one of the main aims of the area.

_{Source: Dudley, N. (Editor) (2008). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. x + 86pp.}

The WDPA is a spatial database, it holds key attributes or fields of information such as name, designation, area, establishment date, IUCN protected area management category, establishment date etc as well as the delineated boundary or location (latitude and longitude) for the site. The data is held within a Geographical Information System (GIS) enabling users to display the data in desktop mapping programmes (e.g. ESRI ArcMap, ArcView) or view online in 3D globes like Google Earth or ESRI ArcGIS Explorer.

The downloadable dataset is distributed in GIS file format known as shapefiles (.shp) and KML. GIS capable software or earth browsers such as Google Earth / ArcGIS Explorer will be required to view these files. Accompanying (and contained within the shapefiles/kml) is an attribute table that contains key fields of information about the protected areas stored in the WDPA. If you require only tabular information (e.g. DBF or MS Excel) please view the answer to the previous question.

Delineated boundary data is not available for all protected areas in the WDPA; therefore your downloaded dataset may contain polygon (boundary) and/or point (geographic location) shapefiles, representing the available information. The map viewers on the website display the currently available information for every site in the WDPA, displaying either a delineated boundary (polygon) or a location (point).

The WDPA is continually being updated, which includes increasing the number of sites in the WDPA with delineated boundary data. If you are interested in a particular country/region or can assist us in this process please contact protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org to discuss further.