of focusing on specific biodiversity-rich regions. Furthermore, this approach is
critical in maintaining reserve areas with established corridors and evaluating
complex topography and regions surrounding reserves, all for the purpose of
mitigating threats to biodiversity. A better understanding of the patterns and
processes of ecosystems across different landscapes will allow the more accu-
rate prediction of impacts of human activity on landscape structure and the
possibility of mitigation through land use practices such as agroforestry.
Regardless of which conservation strategy is used to determine priority
areas and the scale at which that strategy is applied, use of comprehensive data
is paramount. Collecting and integrating data on species distribution, habitat
associations, and abundances should be a focal point of conservation networks
because both the amount of data and the technology for integrating and com-
piling data have improved (van Jaarsveld et al. 1998).
Understanding biodiversity patterns is essential in establishing science-
based conservation strategies. Quantifying patterns of endemism, rarity, and
endangerment can be accomplished using a coordinated global framework.
One important effort has been undertaken by the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), an organization with
900 Institutional Members (governments, government agencies, and non-
government organizations), supported by a network of approximately 10,000
scientists and other conservation specialists. The IUCN is developing a freely
accessible database of biodiversity information, coordinated by the Species
Survival Commission (SSC). Information gathered by the IUCN SSC
includes species identity, distribution, and conservation status. The success of
this and other initiatives will allow conservation managers to make more sci-
entifically informed decisions. A systematic evaluation of the conservation sta-
tus of species, through the IUCN Red List, has been accomplished for the
majority of terrestrial vertebrates, and there are ongoing efforts to include
plants, invertebrates, and marine organisms that have not yet been evaluated
(Hilton-Taylor 2000). This systematic designation of the conservation status
of individual species allows conservation efforts to focus on species of imme-
diate concern, such as the critically endangered muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides)
of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), lim-
ited to several grassland areas in Ethiopia, and to prioritize conservation
efforts.
Conservation Implementation
In the past decade, conservation research has produced an important body of
knowledge that has reshaped practical conservation efforts from a narrow
focus of isolated protected areas to a set of integrated actions at the landscape
scale (Gascon et al. 2000). Although we are now scientifically literate in the
effects of many types of land use on biodiversity, such as logging and agricul-
26 I. Conservation Biology and Landscape Ecology in the Tropics