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Man and Biosphere Reserves Around The World
Composed of 669 biosphere reserves in 120 countries, including 16 transboundary sites, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) of the UNESCO Man And Biosphere (MAB)...Composed of 669 biosphere reserves in 120 countries, including 16 transboundary sites, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) of the UNESCO Man And Biosphere (MAB) Programme consists of a dynamic and interactive network of sites of excellence. It works to foster the harmonious integration of people and nature for sustainable development through participatory dialogue, knowledge sharing, poverty reduction, human well-being improvements, respect for cultural values and by improving society’s ability to cope with climate change.For more information, visit: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/man-and-biosphere-programme/
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The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD)
The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) version 2 provides a comprehensive and seamless global map of inland surface waters distinguished into 33 waterbody and wetland...The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) version 2 provides a comprehensive and seamless global map of inland surface waters distinguished into 33 waterbody and wetland types. GLWD v2 was developed by harmonizing the best available ground- and satellite-based data sources and has been designed to represent the maximum non-overlapping extents of aquatic ecosystems over the broad contemporary period of 1990-2020.
GLWD v2 represents a total of 18.2 million km2 of wetlands at a grid cell resolution of 15 arc-seconds (approximately 500 m at the equator). The data consist of a map of the dominant waterbody or wetland type in each grid cell, as well as 33 individual class layers which represent the sub-cell fraction of each specific class within each grid cell.
Version 2 of GLWD (Lehner et al., 2025) is the successor of the widely-used GLWD version 1 (Lehner & Döll, 2004). The quality, resolution, and format of GLWD v2 significantly improves upon GLWD v1 and supersedes the older version.
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World Heritage Site List
The World Heritage List includes 1248 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal...The World Heritage List includes 1248 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.
These include 972 cultural, 235 natural and 41 mixed properties in 170 States Parties. As of October 2024, 196 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention.
