Dataset – Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Description

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a major body of work evaluating the state of the world's ecosystems.

The MA ….’ is an international work program designed to meet the needs of decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and options for responding to those changes….. If the MA proves to be useful to its stakeholders, it is anticipated that such integrated assessments will be repeated every 5– 10 years and that ecosystem assessments will be regularly conducted at national or sub-national scales.’

‘The MA focuses on ecosystem services (the benefits people obtain from ecosystems), how changes in ecosystem services have affected human wellbeing, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and response options that might be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation. The specific issues being addressed by the assessment have been defined through consultation with the MA users.’

This global report contains significant amounts of material relevant to individual countries but this material is not necessarily easy to access for those people looking for country specific analysis. Within these web pages, MA material relating to 19 countries has been collated into a standard format using a three-fold division of material:

•   Systems and ecosystem services 
•   Changing systems and the effects on ecosystem services 
•   Policy responses 

In addition to this material, Sub-Global Assessments will be incoporated into the website in early 2008. MA reports can be accessed via individual country pages found through the Search facility.

Source

The MA material has been prepared by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, UK. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/index.cfm

Update Frequency

Material will be added as available.

Links

http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx