The UN Biodiversity Lab (UNBL), an innovative spatial data analytics platform, is now a digital public good, facilitating open access to spatial data that can inform environmental evidence-based decisions.
Key points
- UNBL has been designed to aid policymakers in identifying and addressing pressing issues related to conservation and sustainable development.
- It is a key resource available in the digital public goods registry – a globally recognized list of digital public goods (DPGs).
- In effect, this designation recognizes UNBL’s role in bringing together 400 of the world’s best global spatial data layers from more than 40 data providers for use in research, policymaking, and innovative software applications, based on the terms of use from the data providers who generate this wealth of knowledge.
- Following its initial development in 2018, an updated UNBL 2.0 was launched in 2021 as a free, open-source platform by the Secretariat of the UN Biodiversity Convention (CBD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
About Digital public goods (DPGs)
- DPGs are defined as open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm by design and are of high relevance for attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
