Since its inception in 2003, the Proteus Partnership has grown from a handful of ‘early adopters’ to involve the largest and most influential extractive and technology companies in the world. Through the partnership they have contributed to the successful development of a number of key products and outcomes. These include:
- Successful development of online biodiversity tools, such as ProtectedPlanet.net, the Ocean Data Viewer and the A-Z of Areas of Biodiversity Importance, to support decision-makers.
- Improvement and standardisation of a wide range of datasets, including the WDPA and those on coral reefs, mangroves and other critical coastal ecosystems, and the initiation of the global Marine and Coastal Data Partnership to increase the rate of improvement of these data.
- The provision of integrated biodiversity information, comprising data on protected areas and species through Protected Planet, IUCN Red List species, Key Biodiversity Areas and protected areas through the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).
- Annual meetings and expert reports that serve to brief partners with state-of-the-art information on biodiversity in both the terrestrial and marine realms, ranging from data and tools to policies and initiatives.
- Tailored training and technical assistance that helps integrate biodiversity data and tools into the Partners’ systems and processes.
- A total rebuild of the WDPA, the world’s only authoritative and attested global database on national and internationally protected areas.
- Novel partnerships forged across the biodiversity community to bring together data and information from across the UN, International NGOs and Governments.
- Creation of a ‘GeoWiki’ system to enable direct expert input to the WDPA through ProtectedPlanet.net and for extension to other data of major global significance, such as those in key marine environments.
- Creation of a global standard for data on protected areas to ensure that the information made available by national governments and others is in a consistent and appropriate format.
- Co-financing potential that has so far leveraged additional project support to meet the objectives of the Partnership.
