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The UN Atlas of the Oceans is an Internet portal providing information relevant to the sustainable development of the oceans. It is designed for policy-makers who need to become familiar with ocean issues and for scientists, students and resource managers who need access to databases and approaches to sustainability. The UN Atlas can also provide the ocean industry and stakeholders with pertinent information on ocean matters.
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Content
of the UN Atlas of the Oceans
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The Atlas includes four main entry
points to access information:
1. ABOUT (the oceans) - from history, biology, maps and
statistics to research, climatology and ecology
2. USES (of the oceans) - from fishing, shipping and mining
to tourism, dumping and marine biotechnology
3. ISSUES
- from food security and climate change to governance and
human health
4. GEOGRAPHY - information categorized by geographical
area
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The UN Atlas supports Chapter
17 of Agenda 21, the blueprint for the sustainable development
of oceans adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The development of the Atlas began in November 1999 by the UN agencies responsible
for matters relevant to the sustainable development of the
oceans and the advancement of ocean science as an initiative
of the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) (formerly the Subcommittee on Oceans and Coastal Areas
of the Administrative Committee on Coordination).
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1. A leaflet of the UN Atlas of the Oceans is available in PDF (6.5 MB) 
2. A poster of the UN Atlas of the Oceans (50cm x 70cm size) is available at low resolution (for preview) (160 kb) and at high resolution in PDF (for printing)(12 MB)
3. A presentation on the UN Atlas of the Oceans is available in PDF (15000 kb)
4. UN Atlas of the Oceans press releases: issued at launch of the UN Atlas of the Oceans: English, French, Spanish, Arabic (available in PDF) issued at 5th anniversary of the UN Atlas of the Oceans: English
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Partnership
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The UN Atlas of the Oceans was initially funded by the United
Nations Foundation. In addition, six UN Agencies (FAO, IAEA,
IMO, UNEP, WMO, UNESCO/IOC) committed financial resources
to the project, joined by the Secretariat of the Convention
on Biodiversity (CBD). Development has been under the lead
of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department with additional participation
from national agencies. Collaborators include the Russian
Head Department of Navigation and Oceanography (HDNO) and
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
which provided a wealth of information and seconded a
senior manager to serve as Project Manager, supplying him with
support staff and funding. The original partnership has expanded to include: the Census on Marine Life (CoML), the National Geographic Society, the UN International Seabed Authority (ISA), the World Resource Institute (WRI) and the World Ocean Observatory (W2O).
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1. Final Report about the development phase of the UN Atlas Project ((in PDF format)
2.
Report of the 10th Meeting of the
UN Atlas of the Oceans Technical Committee held 8-9 November, 2010 at FAO Headquarters, Rome
(273 KB, PDF format).
3. The software supporting the UN Atlas is the Java-based Community Directory Server (CDS), an Internet portal developed at FAO in collaboration with the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department and the Information Systems and Technology Division.
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About the United Nations Atlas of the Oceans
