Life below water

Goal 14: Life below water

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources

Advancing the sustainable use and conservation of the oceans continues to require effective strategies and management to combat the adverse effects of overfishing, growing ocean acidification and worsening coastal eutrophication. The expansion of protected areas for marine biodiversity, intensification of research capacity and increases in ocean science funding remain critically important to preserve marine resources.

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are the most important places in the world for species and their habitats. Faced with a global environmental crisis we need to focus our collective efforts on conserving the places that matter most. The KBA Programme supports the identification, mapping, monitoring and...

Geo-location of sites with biodiversity funding

Mapping ongoing project activities in the field of conservation in protected areas is essential to identify the various actors and to identify the areas where information and actors are scarce. The aim is to better understand who is funding what and where, with a view to improve decision-making on...

Displays areas where the geographic range of two or more endemic bird species overlaps. While many bird species are widespread, over 2,500 are endemic and restricted to an area smaller than 5 million hectares (restricted-range species). BirdLife International has mapped every restricted-range...

Species occurrences reported to the GBIF

The availability and quantity of observational species occurrence records have greatly increased due to technological advancements and the rise of online portals, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), coalescing occurrence records from multiple datasets. Funded by the world's...

The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF, the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention...

Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of...

Threatened Endemic Species Richness - Sharks and Rays

Marine Ecoregion Protection as of January 2021

The Marine Ecoregions of the World is a global system to classify the oceans, helping to plan and prioritise marine conservation measures. How much are marine areas are protected at ecoregion level? For each African marine ecoregion, this map shows the percentage covered by protected areas.

The global capture fisheries has increased over the last 50 years as the consumption of seafood has doubled.This has increased pressure on fish stocks across the world. According to the State of World Fishery and Aquaculture 2020(FAO), the global capture fisheries production rose 14% from 1990 to...