Species mapping tool

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The National Red List database obviously has a huge amount of potential for useful conservation tools, an aspect we are keen to develop in the future.  If you would like to be involved in developing tools based on the database, please get in touch with us.

Mongolian geographical species search

Developed by the Steppe Forward Programme (a collaboration between the Zoological Society of London and the National University of Mongolia) and funded by the World Bank’s NEMO program (www.worldbank.org/nemo), the Mongolian Biodiversity Databank forms the basis of Mongolia’s Red Lists and national conservation planning.  To date the project has collated information on all Mongolian vertebrates & medicinal plants, covering not just national conservation status, but also population trends, threats, legal protection that exists for those species, summary conservation action plans and species distribution data.

The aim of the databank is to inform effective broad-scale conservation measures within Mongolia and the use of distribution data, in particular, is essential for identifying national priority areas such as those with high species richness, endemicity or threat levels as well as identifying the potential impacts of development in across the country.

An extension to the Mongolian Biodiversity Databank, this online spatial tool makes the distribution data available in an effective, visual, searchable format for use in conservation and landscape planning and management. In doing so we aim to give users – especially those conducting environmental impact assessments – access to information on which vertebrate species are present at a given location, their conservation status and other associated information, and what management actions would be appropriate when working in that area.  Additionally the tool will allow planners to calculate how many species, both threatened and non-threatened, are within a given distance of a selected location. By making this interactive functionality available on the web, the project will maximise the utility of the Biodiversity Databank as a development and conservation tool.

You can access the tool here.

Using the tool

Click anywhere on the map to obtain a list of species that inhabit that point. Alternatively, type in the coordinates of a point or specify a range and hit ‘Search’.  Clicking on a listed species will show its geographic distribution on the map and results can be downloaded into a spreadsheet.