Data Rangelands
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Rangelands

Grasslands vital for biodiversity.

Rangelands are expansive areas characterized by a variety of vegetation, including grasses, shrubs, and occasional trees.

Rangeland Systems

Rangelands are diverse in their vegetation driven by highly fluctuating rainfall, temperature and other climate phenomena, and influenced by soils and management practices. Rangelands have many economic, ecological, social, and cultural values, and a wealth of biodiversity that supports ecosystem health. This map has been produced using seven of fourteen biomes or rangeland types made up of terrestrial ecoregions as defined by WWF. For more information on these terrestrial ecoregions see: [https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/terrestrial-ecoregions-of-the-world](https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/terrestrial-ecoregions-of-the-world)

Land Use & People

Anthropogenic Biomes of the World

Anthropogenic biomes, also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes", describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary, human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by patterns of sustained direct human interaction. It contributes to the understanding of the distribution and extent of human impacts on ecosystems around the world.

Community and Indigenous Land Rights

This dataset is the result of collaborative efforts with organizations dedicated to defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. It provides a comprehensive visualization of Indigenous and community lands and territories across rangelands, with data updated as of 18 November 2024. The dataset includes three main layers: Indigenous Peoples' lands and territories, local community lands and territories, and Indigenous and community natural resource rights. The first two layers represent areas that are recognized as belonging to Indigenous Peoples or local communities. The third layer, Indigenous and community natural resource rights, specifically depicts areas where these groups hold rights to certain natural resources and, in some cases, limited access rights to the land.

Global Livestock Production Systems

The Global Livestock Production Systems provides information on global livestock production systems, including livestock types, production practices, and their spatial distribution, facilitating assessments related to agriculture, food security, and environmental sustainability.

Gridded Livestock Density

This layer contains the Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW) for the reference year 2015 over rangelands. GLW is a spatial dataset that shows the global distribution of the major types of livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, horses, buffalo, ducks), and is available at a spatial resolution of 5 arc-minutes, approximately 10 km at the equator.

Land Use Land Cover

Land cover dataset for various rangeland systems, derived from the European Space Agency’s WorldCover project at 10 m resolution (2021). Based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data, it classifies land cover into 11 categories and has been independently validated, achieving a global overall accuracy of 76.7%. This dataset provides valuable insights into land use and land cover, supporting the analysis of environmental changes and land management practices worldwide.

Pastoralist groups

This dataset contains information on the name, location, and species breed of over 950 pastoralist groups worldwide, mapped across rangelands. Pastoralist groups are communities that manage domesticated animals within a pastoralist system, where livestock graze by moving to their feed. Data accessed as of November 2024.

Population

This layer depicts the distribution of population across rangelands, expressed as the number of people per cell, with each cell corresponding to a 100-meter grid.

Environment & Climate

Grassland class and extent

This dataset, produced under the Global Pasture Watch initiative, maps the global extent of grasslands from 2000 to 2022. The mapped grassland extent includes any land cover type with at least 30% dry or wet low vegetation, primarily grasses and forbs (under 3 meters in height), and adheres to the following thresholds: - Maximum 50% tree canopy cover (trees over 5 meters tall) - Maximum 70% woody vegetation cover (scrubs and open shrubland) - Maximum 50% active cropland cover in mosaic landscapes of cropland and other vegetation Grasslands are categorized into two classes: Cultivated Grassland: Areas where grasses and other forage plants have been intentionally planted and managed, as well as native grassland-type vegetation subjected to intensive human-directed use, such as heavy grazing. Natural/Semi-Natural Grassland: Relatively undisturbed native grasslands (e.g., steppes, tundra) and areas with varying degrees of past human activity. These landscapes may contain a mix of native and introduced species but maintain natural vegetation patterns and hydrological order across the terrain. This dataset provides a valuable resource for monitoring global grassland dynamics, supporting research on ecosystem health, land-use change, and sustainable rangeland management.

Net Primary Productivity

Net Primary Productivity (NPP) represents the amount of organic matter that plants produce through photosynthesis after accounting for the energy they use for their own metabolic processes. The NPP is derived from the difference between the total photosynthetic production occurring over a year and the energy expended by plants for growth and own maintenance, and presented over the world rangelands.

Soil Organic Carbon stocks

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks (t/ha) for 0–30 cm depth, derived from SoilGrids250. Predictions were generated using a digital soil mapping approach based on Quantile Random Forest, leveraging a global compilation of soil profile data and environmental layers. This dataset offers valuable insights into soil carbon dynamics, supporting the monitoring and assessment of soil health and degradation across global rangelands.

Surface Water

This layer presents the location and persistence of surface water at global level over rangelands. The dataset is available at 30m and for the period 1984-2021.

Tree cover gain in rangelands globally over the years

Tree cover gain at 30m from 2000 until 2020 in the different rangelands systems. The forest extent maps were created by attributing pixels with ≥ 5 m forest height as the “forest” land cover class, to ensure consistency with the FAO forest definition.

Tree cover loss in rangelands globally over the years

Tree cover loss from 2000 in the different rangelands systems, defined as a stand-replacement disturbance, or a change from a forest to a non-forest state.

World Dryland Areas

Aridity zones were derived from an Aridity Index (AI) which is calculated as the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration. Zones included in this dataset are the hyperarid, arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid types over rangelands. These are in accordance with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) definition of Drylands. Data that falls outside of the rangeland systems won’t be displayed

Biodiversity & Conservation

Ecoregion intactness

This dataset introduces a continuous metric of ecoregion intactness that moves beyond traditional binary habitat classifications by incorporating measures of habitat loss, quality, and fragmentation. Designed for global applications, it quantifies both the state and changes in the intactness of the world’s terrestrial ecoregions over a 16‐year period (1993–2009) at a 1 km² resolution. The dataset is comprised of five geospatial layers corresponding to: **2009 Ecoregion intactness:** Global distribution of intactness scores for terrestrial ecoregions as of 2009. It reflects the cumulative impacts of human pressures on habitat quality and spatial configuration. Highest intactness values are generally associated with remote, difficult to access area with low human population density. **Intactness change (1993–2009):** Changes in intactness over a 16-year period, highlighting areas that have experienced significant degradation or improvement. **Intactness categories distribution:** Based on a classification of ecoregions into distinct categories (e.g., stable, degrading, or improving), this layer provides an overview of the current state and trend of habitat intactness across regions. **Local intactness contribution:** Representing the partial contribution of each 1 km² cell to overall intactness, this layer reveals fine-scale variations in habitat quality and the local effects of fragmentation. **Sensitivity to habitat quality:** This layer shows the expected rate of change in local intactness relative to changes in habitat quality. It helps identify areas where management or restoration actions could have the most significant impact.

Number of threatened vertebrates in rangelands

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species contains global assessments for more than 163,000 species. The spatial data shown here presents threatened amphibians, mammals, and reptiles in rangelands, classified as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered by the IUCN (www.redlist.org).

World Database on Protected Areas

The map on protected areas draws from data of the WDPA (World Database on Protected Areas) which uses the IUCN's definition of a protected are as the main criteria for entries to be included in the database. The database contains comprehensive information on the different types of protected areas in rangelands ranging from those strictly protected for conservation purposes to those where sustainable use of natural resources is allowed; and includes government, co-managed, private and community-managed areas.

@ OpenStreetMap