An update and beyond: key landscapes for conservation land cover and change monitoring, thematic and validation datasets for the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions

Abstract

Natural resources are increasingly threatened in the world. Threats to biodiversity and human well-being pose enormous challenges in many vulnerable areas. Effective monitoring and protection of sites with strategic conservation importance require timely monitoring, with a particular focus on certain land cover classes that are especially vulnerable. Larger ecological zones and wildlife corridors also warrant monitoring, as these areas are subject to an even higher degree of pressure and habitat loss as they are not “protected” compared to protected areas (national parks, nature reserves, etc.). To address such a need, a satellite-imagery-based monitoring workflow was developed to cover at-risk areas. The first phase of the programme covered a total area of 560 442 km2 in sub-Saharan Africa. In this update, we remapped some of the areas using the latest satellite images available, and in addition we included some new areas to be mapped. Thus, in this version we have updated and mapped an additional 852 025 km2 in the Caribbean, African and Pacific regions, involving up to 32 land cover classes. Medium- to high-spatial-resolution satellite imagery was used to generate dense time series data, from which the thematic land cover maps were derived. Each map and change map was fully verified and validated by an independent team to meet our strict data quality requirements. The independent validation datasets for each key landscape for conservation (KLC) are also described and presented here (all datasets presented are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.931968; Szantoi et al., 2021a).