A Global Network of Forest Protected Areas under the CBD: Opportunities and Challenges

Since the 1980s awareness for global biological diversity loss has been rising constantly. Theadoption of the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (CBD) at the Rio World Summit in 1992 initiated a large number of measures to protect global biodiversity. However, theobserved trend in biodiversity loss has not been reversed yet. WWF’s Living Planet Index(WWF et al. 2006) clearly shows that Earth’s biological diversity is still declining and it is likely that this decline will continue. We are convinced that the challenge of biodiversity losshas to be dealt with at global scale. A global conservation strategy is needed. The WWF Global 200 concept, which is presented here, could be a blueprint for such a globalconservation strategy. The concept is science based and has three characteristics: the use ofecoregions2, its comprehensiveness in scope and the fact that it is representative. In the last decade, WWF has initiated a broad range of conservation programmes in the Global 200ecoregions. Activities in the Alps and the Caucasus will be presented as two examples of ecoregional conservation planning.