Metals Economics Group partners with the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Cambridge, UK, April 19, 2011 – Metals Economics Group (MEG) and the UNEP Globe Conservation Monitoring Centre are pleased to partner to present knowledge for mining firms on their proximity to national parks and other internationally necessary protected areas. This important new information layer in MEG's online service will improve awareness inside the sector about biodiversity conservation, delivering additional context to mining-connected improvement and investment.

Places included in the Planet Database on Protected Regions (WDPA) are displayed on satellite and terrain maps inside MEG's MineSearch— the most substantial and reliable on the web global mining project and provider database.

Protected area information and facts maintained by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre  is highlighted in a new MineSearch map layer.

"We are delighted UNEP-WCMC is offering up-to-date information on protected locations to add critical context to MEG's services", says Dominique di Gesu, COO, Metals Economics Group, "at a time when mining suppliers and investors are devoting considerable believed to a diversity of social difficulties ranging from land and water use to environmental impact and protection.

The WDPA is the most extensive international spatial dataset on marine and terrestrial protected places on the market. "The mining sector has a compelling want for this information and facts," comments Jon Hutton, Director, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. "Organizations will need to understand protected places improved for their threat analysis and preparing as some of these places are ‘no-go' zones for drilling and other types of development."