World Wildlife Fund

Science

Wild World

Explore the Global 200 and Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World

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View images of species in the wild

The Wild Things

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Ecoregions

Regional Assessments

The Conservation Science Program, together with Island Press, continues to publish a series of regional biodiversity assessments, which highlights ecoregions of global and regional importance for conservation by evaluating richness and endemism, other aspects of biodiversity (e.g., rare habitats, outstanding biological phenomena), and threats.

These books provide donors, governments, and other NGOs with guidance for prioritizing regional conservation efforts in a world of ever-increasing threats and, currently, declining resources. These assessments are the building blocks of the Global 200 ecoregions; conservationists can use them to see the rationale for how ecoregions from various regions were selected.

So far, the Conservation Science Program has published continental scale terrestrial assessments of North America, Latin America, and the Indo-Pacific, and freshwater assessments for North America and Latin America/Caribbean. Terrestrial Africa and freshwater Africa are nearing completion. The series has received enthusiastic reviews from notable conservation specialists and scientific journals, including Nature, BioScience, and Conservation Biology.

Terrestrial ecoregions of North America: A conservation assessment
By: Ricketts, T.H., E. Dinerstein, D.M. Olson, C.J. Loucks, W. Eichbaum, D. DellaSala, K. Kavanagh, P. Hedao, P.T. Hurley, K.M. Carney, R. Abell, and S. Walters, editors.

The terrestrial ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: A conservation assessment
By: Wikramanayake, E. D., E. Dinerstein, C. J. Loucks, D. M. Olson, J. Morrison, J. Lamoreux, M. McKnight, and P. Hedao.

Freshwater Biodiversity of Latin America and the Caribbean
Eds.: D. Olson, E. Dinerstein, P. Canevari, I. Davidson, G. Castro, V. Morisset, R. Abell, E. Toledo. Biodiversity Support Program.

A conservation assessment of the freshwater ecoregions of North America
By: Abell, R., D. M. Olson, E. Dinerstein, P. Hurley, S. Walters, C. Loucks, T. Allnutt, and W.W. Wettengel

A Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial Ecoregions of Latin America and the Caribbean
By: E. Dinerstein, D. Olson, D. Graham, A. Webster, S. Primm, M. Bookbinder, G. Ledec. The World Bank. Please note: a revised assessment is currently underway.