{ "culture": "en-US", "name": "NatMod_Screening_Layer", "guid": "", "catalogPath": "", "snippet": "This dataset classifies the global terrestrial land surface into one of four categories: likely Natural, potential Natural, potential Modified, and likely Modified.", "description": "

Download the dataset: here<\/a><\/p>

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The dataset use freely available\ndata layers in combination to develop a new global layer that identifies\nnatural and modified habitat. It is aligned with the definitions of natural and\nmodified habitat from the highly influential Performance Standard 6 (PS6) of\nthe International Finance Corporation (IFC). However, we pr <\/span>opose this layer as an output that can be\nused beyond the IFC and could be integrated into the investment decision making\nof global and regional banks, or the decision making of international\ncorporations.<\/p>

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A global layer of habitat state,\nwhich is aligned with the definitions of Natural and Modified Habitats\naccording to IFC PS6, can be used by businesses in the early stages of project\ndevelopment, by highlighting areas of potential<\/em> or likely<\/em> Natural\nand Modified Habitat. It can be used at a landscape scale, due to the\nresolution and precision of the underlying data. It does not remove the need\nfor more detailed ground surveys at a site level, but provides an overview of\nthe state of habitat in the surrounding area.<\/span><\/p>

Although the IFC PS6 definition\nof Natural and Modified Habitat is based on ecological functions and species\ncomposition, suitable data on this is not available globally. For this reason,\ndata on human pressure and habitat is used as a proxy for the loss and\nintactness of ecological functions and species composition. It is important to\nnote that this screening layer may overestimate the amount of remaining Natural\nHabitat for two reasons. The first is that we took a precautionary approach\nwhen designating pixels a Natural or Modified value. Where there was\ndisagreement between a Natural and Modified dataset for a given pixel, the\nprecautionary approach was to designate it as a Natural pixel (depending on\nwhether the datasets were classified as likely<\/em> or potential<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>

The second\nis that not all aspects of human modification could be included because of data\nlimitations. A prime example is hunting, which is a major cause of biodiversity\nloss (Maxwell et al., 2016<\/span><\/a>) and therefore has large\nimpacts on the ecological function and species composition of habitats, but\nthere is no data available globally. The buffers we used around roads are a\ngood proxy for hunting in some habitats, such as forests, but the impacts of\nhunting will vary based on terrain and may extend further in non-forested areas\n(Wu et al., 2017<\/span><\/a>). In addition, as the Human\nFootprint Layer is a pressure map that includes the indirect effects of access\nin to natural areas, it does have a relationship with human pressures such as\nhunting and the introduction of invasive species (Venter et al., 2016<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

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Of the\nareas classified as likely<\/em> or potential<\/em> Natural\nin our screening layer, some areas may not be intact in terms of ecological\nfunction and species composition due to hunting and other anthropogenic\npressures for which data are not available. For example, two thirds of Intact\nForest Landscapes overlap with an area where a species has gone extinct in the\npast 500\u202fyears (Plumptre et al., 2019<\/span><\/a>). And around 9% of\ntropical Intact Forest Landscapes and 11% of tropical Wilderness areas have\nlost at least 10% of their mammal abundance due to hunting (Benítez-López et al., 2019<\/span><\/a>). When only\nconsidering large-bodied mammal assemblages, these figures go up to over 50% (Benítez-López et al., 2019<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

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<\/span><\/p><\/div>", "summary": "This dataset classifies the global terrestrial land surface into one of four categories: likely Natural, potential Natural, potential Modified, and likely Modified.", "title": "Natural and Modified Habitat Screening Layer", "tags": [ "unep-wcmc", "international-finance-corporation-performance-standard-6", "biodiversity-safeguards", "natural-habitat", "modified-habitat", "investment-screening", "environmental-risk", "ckp:theme=nature-conserved", "ckp:theme=nature-restored", "ckp:resource=spatial-data", "ckp:license=cc-by", "ckp:classification=public" ], "type": "Image Service", "typeKeywords": [ "Data", "Service", "Image Service", "ArcGIS Server" ], "thumbnail": "", "url": "https://data-gis.unep-wcmc.org/server", "minScale": 2.95828763795855E8, "maxScale": 9244648.86862046, "spatialReference": "GCS_WGS_1984", "accessInformation": "Gosling, J., Jones, M. I., Arnell, A., Venter, O., Watson, J. E. M., Baquero, A. C., & Burgess, N. D. (2020). Natural and Modified Habitat Screening Layer [Data set]. UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). https://doi.org/10.34892/4Q5V-GF37", "licenseInfo": "
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License<\/a>.", "_ssl": true }