Where are the best places to spot the most requested wildlife-watching species? This grid layer presents a richness index of top wildlife watching species/groups, including rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, giraffes, lowland and mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, sifakas, ringtails, aye-aye, mouse lemurs and colobus.

Healthy coral reefs provide a home for millions of aquatic species. They protect coastal homes from storms and support commercial and subsistence fisheries as well as jobs and businesses through tourism and recreation. Yet they are severely threatened by pollution, disease, habitat destruction and climate change. When corals are stressed, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. Corals are vulnerable to bleaching when the sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds the temperatures normally experienced in the hottest month of the year. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch daily global 5km Coral Bleaching HotSpot product measures the occurrence and magnitude of instantaneous heat stress, potentially resulting in coral bleaching. It highlights regions where the SST is warmer than the highest monthly mean. HotSpot values of 1°C or more indicate heat stress leading to coral bleaching and are highlighted in yellow to dark red colors.

This dataset is an index that estimates the relative value provided by coral reefs that protect coastlines through reduction of wave height and wave energy. The value as of 2014 is modelled as a function of exposed populations and infrastructure that received some level of protection from coastal and barrier reefs, and is described in relative terms, classified by decile (i.e., grouped into the most valuable ten percent of reefs for protection, the second-most valuable tenth of reefs, etc.). It was calculated at 1 kilometre (km) resolution globally, encompassing all countries and territories containing coral reefs.

Africa is very rich in biodiversity and is the last place on Earth with a significant assemblage of large mammals. This natural richness, accumulated over millions of years, coupled with the wealth of indigenous and local knowledge on the continent, is central to the pursuit of sustainable development in the region. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity is reducing nature’s contributions to people in Africa, affecting daily lives and hampering the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. This map shows the number of threatened mammal species by country, assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and documented in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity that helps inform necessary conservation decisions.

Healthy coral reefs provide a home for millions of aquatic species and numerous ecosystemic services. Yet they are severely threatened. When stressed, corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch daily global 5km satellite coral Bleaching Alert Area (7-day maximum) is a composite product that summarizes the current Degree Heating Week (a cumulative measurement of both intensity and duration of heat stress) and Coral Bleaching HotSpot (occurrence and magnitude of instantaneous heat stress) values. At a glance, this layer outlines the current locations, coverage, and potential risk level of coral bleaching heat stress.

Displays areas where the geographic range of two or more endemic bird species overlaps. While many bird species are widespread, over 2,500 are endemic and restricted to an area smaller than 5 million hectares (restricted-range species). BirdLife International has mapped every restricted-range species using geo-referenced locality records. Through this process, they identified regions of the world—known as “Endemic Bird Areas” (EBAs)—where the distributions of two or more of these species overlap. Half of all restricted-range species are globally threatened or near-threatened, and the other half remain vulnerable to loss or degradation of habitat. The majority of EBAs are also important for the conservation of restricted-range species from other animal and plant groups. The unique landscapes where these bird species occur, amounting to just 4.5% of the earth's land surface, are high priorities for broad-scale ecosystem conservation. Geographically, EBAs are often islands or mountain ranges, and vary considerably in size, from a few hundred hectares to more than 10,000,000 hectares. EBAs also vary in the number of restricted-range species that they support (from two to 80). EBAs are found around the world, but most (77%) of them are located in the tropics and subtropics.

The availability and quantity of observational species occurrence records have greatly increased due to technological advancements and the rise of online portals, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), coalescing occurrence records from multiple datasets. Funded by the world's governments, this international network and data infrastructure is aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. This map displays all the observations reported to the GBIF from 1600 to present. This knowledge derives from many sources, including everything from museum specimens collected in the 18th and 19th century to geotagged smartphone photos shared by amateur naturalists in recent days and weeks. Individual records are available at https://www.gbif.org