Introduction

At the outset of the new century, we face the prospect of global biodiversity loss and species extinction on a scale unprecedented in human history, largely at the hands of human society.Were such loss not occasioned by human activity, our response might be to let nature take its course. As it is, we are forced to take responsibility for our actions and derelictions. Although it is the cumulative effect of untold numbers of small actions that is driving the process, it is no longer adequate to hope that halting and reversing such loss can likewise be achieved by large numbers of small actions. It is increasingly evident that project-based approaches to conservation cannot hope meaningfully to engage the economic and social forces driving biodiversity loss at a global scale.

One response to this crisis on the part of some NGOs and government agencies has been to move towards conservation planning and action at a regional scale. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) argues that, ‘to halt the global extinction crisis that we now face, we must conduct conservation planning over larger spatial scales and longer time frames than ever before’ (Dinerstein et al. 2000: 13). WWF has adopted what it terms the ‘ecoregion’ as the appropriate scale for conservation planning, and has identified over 200 ecoregions world-wide as priorities for action.