WDPCA: Puerto Rico Protected and Conserved Area Boundaries

UNEP-WCMC maintains this geospatial resource of marine and terrestrial protected areas in Puerto Rico, updated as of March 2026. It integrates the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and the World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM) to support international biodiversity reporting. The data is a joint product of the UN Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Use Cases

• Calculating the total percentage of terrestrial and marine territory under protection to meet Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets
• Identifying biodiversity risks for commercial projects by intersecting project boundaries with protected area polygons
• Tracking progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals using core indicators for ecosystem protection

Strengths

• Updated on a monthly basis to ensure temporal accuracy
• Available in four formats including GEOJSON and GEOPACKAGE for GIS compatibility
• Official UN-backed data source from UNEP-WCMC and IUCN

Limitations

• Specific attribute columns and record counts are not detailed in the source metadata
• Geographic coverage is restricted to the Puerto Rico region

Provenance

Source

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

Collection Method

Compiled from government and stakeholder reporting

Freshness

Updated on a monthly basis

Geography

Puerto Rico