### Bioreserves

The map showing bioreserves is derived from the 1997 United Nations List of Protected Areas, as distributed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. The original database consists of a list of protected areas characterized by latitude, longitude, size, protection category and others. The database of protected areas developed for IMAGE 2.4 uses several selection criteria. Two different types of bioreserves are distinguished: protected and valuable bioreserves. The following algorithm is used to locate protected bioreserves.

1. International parks and national parks are considered within the following categories:

- I (Strict Nature Reserve, which is a protected area managed mainly for scientific purposes, and Wilderness Area, which is an area managed mainly for wilderness protection)
- II (National Park, which is an area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation)
- III (Natural Monument, which is a protected area managed mainly for conservation of specific natural features).

2. Ignored are national parks within the following categories:

- IV (Habitat/Species Management Area, which is protected area maintained mainly for conservation through management intervention)
- V (Protected Landscape/Seascape, which is a protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation)
- VI (Managed Resource Protected Area, which is a protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems)

3. Parks without a location are ignored.

4. If the location (i.e. central latitude and longitude) of a park falls within a cell containing more than 50% water, then that park is ignored; otherwise it is allocated to this cell.

5. If a cell contains more than one park, then all these parks are combined with the largest park in this cell, which will lead to aggregated parks.

6. If the size of an aggregated park is less than the land area within a cell, the fraction of protected area within a cell is defined as the size of the aggregated parks relative to the size of land area within the cell.

7. If the size of an aggregated park is more than the land area within a cell, the fraction of protected area within a cell is defined as 1.

8. Parks from the previous step are allocated to neighbouring cells according to the following steps:

- parks are allocated until the total size of the aggregated park is assigned to cells
- parks are only allocated to cells containing land
- cells are allocated in cycles: the 8 neighboring cells are first considered, the 16 cells surrounding these next, the 24 cells surrounding these after that, etc.

Within these cycles the nearest cell is taken first. Here, distance is calculated as

D = (latcell-latpark)2 + (loncell-lonpark)2

ith 'lat' and 'lon' representing latitude and longitude in degrees, where latcell and loncell are taken as the centre of the cell

9. If the fraction of protected area within a cell is larger than 50%, the cell is labelled 'protected'.

The same algorithm is used to locate valuable bioreserves. In this case, however, all parks are taken into account in the first selection step.

Bioreserves are used within IMAGE 2.4 in the land-cover model. The cells, assumed to be classified as protected bioreserves, cannot be used for any other land use. For some specific impact indicators (Changes in vegetation) cells with bioreserves can be viewed separately in the user support system of IMAGE 2.4. Within IMAGE 2.4, the size of bioreserves is fixed, which means that IMAGE 2.4 does not simulate changes in bioreserve size.