Indicator unit: The above-ground carbon (AGC) is expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) of carbon per km2 . It corresponds to the carbon fraction of the oven-dry weight of the woody parts (stem, bark, branches and twigs) of all living trees, excluding stump and roots, as estimated by the GlobBiomass project (globbiomass.org) with 2017 as the reference year.
Indicator unit: The belowground biomass carbon (BBC) is expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) of carbon per km2 . It represents an estimation of the carbon stored in the roots of all living trees. This carbon pool is calculated as a fraction of the aboveground biomass carbon stock using root-to-shoot ratios (R). It is derived from two main data sources: the global aboveground biomass map produced by the GlobBiomass project (globbiomass.org) and the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2019).
How well are forests preserved in a given area? Forests are one of the most important terrestrial habitats and a carbon sink that needs to be conserved to fulfil biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation targets. By informing of forest cover trends, and their spatial distribution, it is possible to highlight countries, ecoregions or specific protected areas with worrying forest loss trends, as well as others where forest cover is well maintained or even increases through time either naturally or through forestation.
How well are we protecting freshwater ecosystems and how strong are anthropogenic changes affecting surface water in a given area? Human pressures are constantly increasing and it is important to monitor the consequences of the associated changes on the environment, in particular inside and around protected areas, to ensure that natural ecosystems and their associated species and ecosystem functions (e.g. goods and services) are preserved.
Percentage of land affected by landcover change (ESA LC CCI) within first and last epoch. By protected area.
Indicator units: Natural (and semi-natural) land fragmentation refers to the reduction of area, the emergence of discontinuities and the isolation of natural land patches within a region of interest. Natural land spatial pattern is a relevant measure to capture changes in size, shape and structural connectivity, in particular the breaking down of large patches of natural land into smaller patches, the presence of linear features and isolated small fragments.
Indicator unit: Amount of carbon stored in the soil (0 to 30 cm depth), expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) per km2.
Area of interest: The SOCI has been calculated at the country level, terrestrial ecoregion level and for all protected areas and is provided for each country and each terrestrial and coastal protected area of size ≥ 1 km2.
Indicator unit: Amount of carbon stored in the soil (0 to 30 cm depth), expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) per km2 .
Area of interest The SOCI has been calculated at the country level and for all protected areas and is provided and for each country, each terrestrial ecoregion and each terrestrial and coastal protected area of size ≥ 1 km2.
Policy question: There are two main policy questions to which the SOCI indicator is relevant: