Ecoregions

A New Map of Life on Earth
Over the past eight years WWF's Conservation Science Program (CSP) has developed a biogeographic regionalization of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. We term our biogeographic units ecoregions, which we define as a relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities sharing a large majority of species, dynamics, and environmental conditions. Ecoregions represent the original distribution of distinct assemblages of species and communities.

There are multiple uses for the terrestrial ecoregion map in our efforts to conserve biodiversity around the world. It provides:

• a map of terrestrial biodiversity that gives enough detail to be useful in global and regional conservation priority-setting and planning efforts.
• a logical biogeographic framework for the development of large-scale conservation strategies.
• a map and descriptions for those working to increase biogeographic literacy and to illustrate conservation issues around the world; including a general description of each ecoregion, outstanding and distinctive biodiversity features, current status and types and severity of threats to the natural habitats.
• a framework for a global species database useful in priority setting and ecological analyses.