What UN Biodiversity Lab does

UN Biodiversity Lab (UNBL) is a United Nations partnership initiative that operates a free geospatial platform providing decision makers with access to over 1,000 spatial data layers on nature, climate change, and sustainable development. It is jointly convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The platform supports country-led efforts for biodiversity planning, monitoring, and reporting, with explicit alignment to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The core product is a web-based mapping platform (map.unbiodiversitylab.org) augmented by specialized planning tools (ELSA Integrated Spatial Planning Tool, Marxan Planning Platform, WePlan-Forests), monitoring tools (Target Tracker, Trends.Earth), and free secure workspaces where users can combine national data with global layers. Technical architecture is built around geospatial data integration, spatial analysis workflows, and visualization, available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian. The platform holds Data Digital Public Good accreditation from the Digital Public Goods Alliance and won the GEO SDG Award in 2021.

UNBL does not generate direct revenue. Access is free for all users and all countries, and the initiative is funded through its UN convening partners and donor relationships rather than through subscription or licensing fees. Customer segments include national governments and environmental agencies (primary), conservation organizations and NGOs, researchers and academic institutions, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Distribution leverages UNDP's global country office network, the Learning for Nature training platform, and digital self-serve access, with documented adoption in 17+ countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Name

UN Biodiversity Lab

Legal name

UN Biodiversity Lab

Website

https://unbiodiversitylab.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

UN Biodiversity Lab is a UN partnership initiative that provides a free geospatial platform with over 1,000 spatial data layers for national governments, conservation organizations, and researchers to plan, monitor, and report on biodiversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial Analytics Platform

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (541620), Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations (813312), Administration of Conservation Programs (92412)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Nature & Biodiversity Reporting (TNFD, natural capital) (EUAHAJAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Biodiversity & Habitat Conservation (BPAGAGAA), Biodiversity Baseline Studies & Long-Term Monitoring Programs (EUAHAHAE), Forest Inventory, Mapping & Monitoring (GIS/Remote Sensing/MRV) (IMAMAJAB), United Nations System & Specialized Agencies (BPADAAAA)

Keywords

• Spatial data platform
• Biodiversity monitoring
• Geospatial analytics
• Environmental planning tools
• Spatial decision support

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free Platform Access: UNBL provides free access to its platform, data layers, and tools. The organization is a UN initiative funded through partnerships with UNEP, UNDP, and the CBD Secretariat rather than through direct revenue generation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

UN Biodiversity Lab is a free geospatial platform that provides over 1,000 spatial data layers on nature, climate change, and sustainable development to support country-led efforts for biodiversity planning, monitoring, and reporting. It bundles integrated analytical tools (ELSA, Marxan, WePlan-Forests, Target Tracker, Trends.Earth) and secure collaborative workspaces so governments and partners can identify priority areas for nature protection, management, and restoration aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Product overview

UN Biodiversity Lab is a unified geospatial platform providing spatial data and analytical tools to support countries in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The platform offers over 1,000 data layers on nature, climate change, and sustainable development. The product portfolio includes the core UNBL mapping platform, specialized planning tools (ELSA Integrated Spatial Planning Tool, Marxan Planning Platform, WePlan-Forests), monitoring tools (Target Tracker, Trends.Earth), collaborative workspaces, and multiple thematic data collections. Language support is available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian through AI-based translations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ELSA (Essential Life Support Areas) Integrated Spatial Planning Tool: Spatial planning tool that combines cutting-edge spatial data with systematic spatial planning tools to help countries identify priority areas for biodiversity, climate, and human well-being protection, management, and restoration
• UNBL Workspaces

Products and services

• UNBL Platform A free geospatial web platform providing over 1,000 spatial data layers on nature, climate change, and sustainable development, used by national governments, environmental agencies, conservation organizations, and researchers for planning, monitoring, and reporting.
• ELSA Integrated Spatial Planning Tool Combines cutting-edge spatial data with systematic spatial planning tools to help countries identify priority areas for protecting, managing, and restoring nature in support of biodiversity, climate, and human well-being goals under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Marxan Planning Platform (MaPP) Planning platform supporting collaboration and decision-making for biodiversity conservation and socio-economic objectives across land, freshwater, and ocean systems.
• WePlan-Forests Decision support platform for tropical and subtropical forest ecosystem restoration planning that aims to maximize climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and poverty alleviation benefits.
• Target Tracker Online tool based on the headline indicators of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework monitoring framework to visualize progress towards each of the goals and targets.
• Trends.Earth Free and open source tool to understand land change, drawing on globally available data to produce customized local maps for land monitoring and decision-making.
• UNBL Workspaces Free secure workspaces provided to governments, conservation organizations, researchers, and other stakeholders to use UNBL tools and visualize/analyze national data together with global data layers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Supports 17+ countries in biodiversity monitoring and GBF implementation
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and featured.

• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNEP is one of the three convening partners of UNBL, providing institutional backing and alignment with UN environmental frameworks. The partnership supports global environmental policy and sustainable development objectives.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNDP is one of the three convening partners of UNBL, leveraging its global country office network to support national implementation and capacity building. UNDP hosts the Learning for Nature platform and supports country-level adoption.
• Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCBD Secretariat is one of the three convening partners, providing alignment with international biodiversity frameworks including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and supporting Parties to the Convention.
• NASAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNASA-funded projects through which UNDP, UN Member States, and research institutions work in partnership to provide world-class data on forests, climate change, and conservation. Includes ARSET training programs.
• Digital Public Goods AlliancemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAccredited UNBL as a data digital public good, supporting the promotion of open-source data and digital public goods standards.
• South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSANBI collaborates with UNBL to build scalable solutions supporting SADC region countries in monitoring and reporting on NBSAPs and the GBF through national and regional dashboards.
• Land and Carbon LabfeaturedTechnology or IntegrationNetwork of researchers, technologists and engagement experts working together to build a comprehensive, open access monitoring system for land and carbon monitoring globally.
• Marxan Planning PlatformfeaturedTechnology or IntegrationThe Marxan Planning Platform supports collaboration and decision-making for biodiversity conservation and socio-economic objectives for land, freshwater and ocean systems.
• SEPAL (Open Foris)featuredTechnology or IntegrationOpen source project by the Open Foris team in FAO's Forestry Department, funded by the Government of Norway, providing earth observation data processing.
• Trends.EarthfeaturedTechnology or IntegrationFree and open source tool to understand land change, allowing users to draw on the best available information from global to local scales.
• WePlan-ForestsfeaturedTechnology or IntegrationDecision support platform for tropical and subtropical forest ecosystem restoration planning, maximizing climate, biodiversity, and poverty alleviation benefits.
• Target TrackerfeaturedTechnology or IntegrationOnline tool based on headline indicators of the Kunming-Montreal GBF monitoring framework to visualize progress towards goals and targets.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Global Forest Watch: World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch is a near-direct peer: an online geospatial platform providing spatial data layers and decision-support tools for forest monitoring, with country and supply-chain user bases. Both platforms occupy the niche of free, data-rich geospatial portals supporting environmental policy and reporting.
• Restor: Restor is a free, open-source geospatial platform for ecosystem restoration planning that combines spatial data layers with project-level tools. It serves a similar user base of national agencies, NGOs, and researchers and competes for the same ELSA-style spatial planning workflow that UNBL offers to governments.
• MapBiomas: MapBiomas is a multi-country collaborative network producing annual land cover and land use maps from satellite imagery for biodiversity, climate, and water applications. It mirrors UNBL's model of bringing together national science teams to populate standardized spatial layers that inform national environmental planning.
• Protected Planet (WDPA / UNEP-WCMC): Protected Planet hosts the World Database on Protected Areas and is the closest UN-system analogue to UNBL. Both are UN-convened, free, geospatial biodiversity platforms supporting country reporting against multilateral environmental agreements.

Emerging players

• Marxan Planning Platform: Marxan Planning Platform (MaPP) is integrated within UNBL and supports systematic conservation planning for land, freshwater, and ocean systems. It is comparable to UNBL because of the shared user base and conservation planning workflow, but it is owned and operated by an independent consortium rather than by UNBL.
• Trends.Earth: Trends.Earth is an open-source tool integrated within UNBL for land change monitoring against SDG and UNCCD indicators. As an integrated sub-tool of UNBL, it is closely comparable to UNBL's other sub-tools (ELSA, MaPP, WePlan) but operates independently with its own user community.

Others

• NASA Worldview / EOSDIS: NASA Worldview and the broader EOSDIS system supply much of the underlying satellite data that UNBL layers on top of. As a data provider and upstream infrastructure, NASA is an enabling ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor, but it offers visualization capabilities that overlap with UNBL's map interface.

Broad incumbents

• Esri ArcGIS: Esri's ArcGIS platform is the dominant commercial GIS used by environmental ministries and agencies worldwide. It overlaps with UNBL on spatial data hosting, analysis, and country-level environmental planning workflows, though it is a general-purpose GIS rather than a biodiversity-specialized offering.
• Microsoft Planetary Computer: Microsoft Planetary Computer is a cloud-hosted geospatial platform providing curated environmental datasets and APIs. It competes for the same government and research user base seeking spatial data layers for biodiversity and climate analysis, with stronger commercial distribution and developer tooling than UNBL.
• Google Earth Engine: Google Earth Engine is a broad-incumbent geospatial platform with petabyte-scale satellite data and extensive APIs used heavily by researchers and governments. It serves overlapping analytical use cases (biodiversity, climate, land change) but operates as a general-purpose infrastructure rather than a biodiversity-specialized platform.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/unbl

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about UN Biodiversity Lab