Unified: Human Modification and Proportion of Conservation Protection
This layer shows the proportion of the landscape that is protected for conservation and includes attributes that summarize the type of protection and the amount of human modification.
Overview
Human modification
The degree of human modification across the globe for each terrestrial cell of 110 km by 110 km is shown. The human modification ranges from 0 (no modification) to 1 (high modification). For each cell, we provide the proportion of modification belonging to four different types of human activity: urban, rangeland, rainfed and irrigated agriculture. The degree of modification of the land can be used as a proxy of the cost of its restoration: the higher the modification, the higher the degradation and therefore the higher the cost of restoration.
Protection
Several global projects are proposing to increase the proportion of protected terrestrial areas to 30-50%. The proportion of area protected is provided for each cell. Also the proportion for two types of protection: community protected and non-community protected. Community-based Conservation Areas are territories that are managed in a way that allows for the maintenance of biodiversity, environmental services and cultural values. They may operate under different types of governance (e.g., indigenous communities, local communities, private).
Methods
Human modification
The mean Human modification (Kennedy et al., 2019) is dimensionless and ranges from 0 (no modification) to 1 (complete modification). Kennedy et al. (2019) categorise it as:
low (between 0 and 0.1),
moderate (between 0.1 and 0.4),
high (between 0.4 and 0.7) and
very high (over 0.7).
Then, four proportion values of human modification are provided: Urban, Irrigated Agriculture, Rainfed Agriculture and Rangelands. The four classes have been derived using the Anthrome Classification Algorithm from Ellis et al. (2010) using the following key:
Urban: 11: Urban/12: Mixed settlements
Rainfed agriculture: 21: Rice villages/23: Rainfed villages/32: Residential rainfed croplands/33: Populated croplands/34: Remote croplands
Irrigated agriculture: 22: Irrigated villages/31: Residential irrigated croplands
Rangeland: 24: Pastoral villages/41: Residential rangelands/42: Populated rangelands/43: Remote rangelands
Protection
Three proportion values of protection are provided: 'Non Community', 'Community' and 'Total'. The protection has been calculated using the WDPA (UNEP and IUCN, version December 2019) and the RAISG data (Amazonia 2019). Community protected areas encompass RAISG and those protected areas from the WDPA designated with any of the following wild cards: Aborig*, Indigen*, Commun*, Conservanc*, Local*, Region*, Trust*, Conservator*, Private*, Nature Center*. Non Community protected areas refer to those not belonging to the previous selection in the WDPA. Total protected areas is the combination of both Community and Non Community protected areas described above.
The cell id references the grid from Jetz et al. (2012).
Sources
Amazonia 2019 – Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories
Ellis, E. C., K. Klein Goldewijk, S. Siebert, D. Lightman, and N. Ramankutty. 2010. Anthropogenic transformation of the biomes, 1700 to 2000. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19(5):589-606.
Jetz, W., McPherson, J. M., and Guralnick, R. P. (2012). Integrating biodiversity distribution knowledge: toward a global map of life. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27:151-159. DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2011.09.007
Kennedy, M. C., Oakleaf, J., Theobald, D.M., Baruch-Mordo, S., Kiesecker, J. (2018). Global Human Modification. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7283087.v1
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (2019), Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net.
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Additional Info
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| Last Updated | September 11, 2026, 07:28 (UTC) |
| Created | March 24, 2026, 21:06 (UTC) |
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Unified: Human Modification and Proportion of Conservation Protection |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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This layer shows the proportion of the landscape that is protected for conservation and includes attributes that summarize the type of protection and the amount of human modification. Overview Human modification The degree of human modification across the globe for each terrestrial cell of 110 km by 110 km is shown. The human modification ranges from 0 (no modification) to 1 (high modification). For each cell, we provide the proportion of modification belonging to four different types of human activity: urban, rangeland, rainfed and irrigated agriculture. The degree of modification of the land can be used as a proxy of the cost of its restoration: the higher the modification, the higher the degradation and therefore the higher the cost of restoration. Protection Several global projects are proposing to increase the proportion of protected terrestrial areas to 30-50%. The proportion of area protected is provided for each cell. Also the proportion for two types of protection: community protected and non-community protected. Community-based Conservation Areas are territories that are managed in a way that allows for the maintenance of biodiversity, environmental services and cultural values. They may operate under different types of governance (e.g., indigenous communities, local communities, private). Methods Human modification The mean Human modification (Kennedy et al., 2019) is dimensionless and ranges from 0 (no modification) to 1 (complete modification). Kennedy et al. (2019) categorise it as:
Then, four proportion values of human modification are provided: Urban, Irrigated Agriculture, Rainfed Agriculture and Rangelands. The four classes have been derived using the Anthrome Classification Algorithm from Ellis et al. (2010) using the following key: Urban: 11: Urban/12: Mixed settlements Rainfed agriculture: 21: Rice villages/23: Rainfed villages/32: Residential rainfed croplands/33: Populated croplands/34: Remote croplands Irrigated agriculture: 22: Irrigated villages/31: Residential irrigated croplands Rangeland: 24: Pastoral villages/41: Residential rangelands/42: Populated rangelands/43: Remote rangelands Protection Three proportion values of protection are provided: 'Non Community', 'Community' and 'Total'. The protection has been calculated using the WDPA (UNEP and IUCN, version December 2019) and the RAISG data (Amazonia 2019). Community protected areas encompass RAISG and those protected areas from the WDPA designated with any of the following wild cards: Aborig*, Indigen*, Commun*, Conservanc*, Local*, Region*, Trust*, Conservator*, Private*, Nature Center*. Non Community protected areas refer to those not belonging to the previous selection in the WDPA. Total protected areas is the combination of both Community and Non Community protected areas described above. The cell id references the grid from Jetz et al. (2012). Sources Amazonia 2019 – Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories Ellis, E. C., K. Klein Goldewijk, S. Siebert, D. Lightman, and N. Ramankutty. 2010. Anthropogenic transformation of the biomes, 1700 to 2000. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19(5):589-606. Jetz, W., McPherson, J. M., and Guralnick, R. P. (2012). Integrating biodiversity distribution knowledge: toward a global map of life. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27:151-159. DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2011.09.007 Kennedy, M. C., Oakleaf, J., Theobald, D.M., Baruch-Mordo, S., Kiesecker, J. (2018). Global Human Modification. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7283087.v1 UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (2019), Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net. |
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