Using the Atlas

The Global Ecosystems Atlas is a continuous, ever-improving work in progress. The current version is an early release to coincide with the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) in Yerevan, Armenia.

Current progress is shown at the foot of this webpage. Acknowledging that coverage is incomplete, current progress is being released as a beta version to allow users to explore and understand the capabilities of the Atlas.

Incomplete coverage may restrict certain uses, and we caution users from relying on incomplete information for formal analyses as these are subject to change in upcoming months. The beta version is expected to be superseded by the first full release in early 2027.

The Global Ecosystems Atlas is free to use under a CC-BY license, which permits the use of the data in commercial and non-commercial applications, with appropriate attribution.

Users can access information from the Global Ecosystems Atlas in four different ways:

1. Interactive web-viewer

The web-viewer allows users to explore the Global Ecosystems Atlas in an interactive way. Users can select ecosystem types, regions or countries to generate summary statistics and graphics. The web-viewer also allows users to upload or draw areas of interest and generate summary statistics for these areas.

2. Application programming interface (API)

Advanced users can access pre-computed area statistics by country, region, or ecosystem; query metadata; and access map services through the Global Ecosystems Atlas public application programming interface (API).

3. Downloadable GIS data

Coming in early-2027. Following the full release of the Global Ecosystem Atlas, users will be able to download all the GIS data from a version-controlled spatial data repository (links will be provided once they become available).

The synthesis map will also be published by third party sources, including Esri's ArcGIS Living Atlas and the Google Earth Engine Data Catalogue, giving users the option to access the data through their preferred platform.

4. Directly from the original source

If users would like to access original input datasets in their native resolution or classification system, they can access them directly from the source data providers listed in the Data Sources section of this website. The Global Ecosystems Atlas cannot ensure the reliability of these third-party websites, nor does a link to third-party website imply endorsement of the content of that website.