# General specifications

## Overview

UNEP-WCMC's data holdings on forests, their diversity and conservation status worldwide come from a variety of national and international sources. The spatial data have formed the basis for a major statistical analysis of forest protection in the world, carried out in conjunction with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). This has produced an unprecedented amount of data on forest location, by type, and the amount of each forest type protected in each region of the world. The new CD-ROM product A Global Overview of Forest Conservation contains all the GIS spatial data files on forests, protected areas and ecological zones that went into the analysis. It also contains a copy of the statistical analysis with tables, figures, maps and discussions. This statistical analysis is also available to read on the UNEP-WCMC Web Site.

## Technical summary

### Data management

Data were compiled from a variety of sources (see sources). Data was edited using UNIX workstation Arc/Info v7.0 + and processed through a number of quality tests (see quality assurance). The data are archived at UNEP-WCMC in the Biodiversity Map Library in Arc/Info polygon topology and are also available on CD-ROM in Arc/Info export and Arc/Info Shape file formats.

### Data delivery

UNEP-WCMC is able to deliver data on the following media.

- CD-ROM
- Diskette
- Tape (4mm DAT, 8mm EXABYTE), written using UNIX command tar
- FTP

The appropriate medium will be identified prior to delivery.

### Export formats

The data are distributed in the following formats:

- Arc/Info GRID
- Arc/Info Shape
- Arc/Info Export (of polygon layer)
- Arc/Info Export (of GRID layer)
- Arc/Info Ungenerate

Data have been compiled in twelve regional areas and are segmented in to countries. Country names are referenced using the International Standards Organisation (ISO) three letter coding system (e.g. AFG = Afghanistan). A full list of these codes is provided in Annex 2.

### Geographic characteristics

- Nominal scale: 1:1,000,000
- Projection: geographic
- Units: decimal degrees
- Precision: double (real)
(Note: Arc/Info GRID format can be provided in Robinson or Mollweide projection, units meter, Longitude of projection center 0.)