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Published in Winter 2000-2001
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CEC setting biodiversity priorities
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Conservation of Biodiversity strategy is to begin its work in geographical regions of highest priority, as described here by Jürgen Hoth and Tara Wilkinson.">The well being of the rich array of living organisms in our global ecosystem is critical to the complex web of nature and ultimately to our own survival. But we are rapidly reducing the planet’s biological diversity and imperiling its ecological processes by our activities. How can we protect North America’s rich store of biodiversity? Part of CEC’s Conservation of Biodiversity strategy is to begin its work in geographical regions of highest priority, as described here by Jürgen Hoth and Tara Wilkinson.
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North America is home to a rich diversity of life forms. Canada, Mexico and the United States share a continent that contains one of the most diverse collections of ecosystems on the planet. Between the coastal mountains and fjords of the Arctic Cordillera, the deep marine canyons of the Gulf of California,
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| CEC's work on Ecological Regions of North America illustrates this rich network of landscapes and habitats. Click on map for enlargement. | and the Tropical Humid Forests of the lush Selva Maya, are a multitude of different landscapes and habitats.
Unfortunately, we are rapidly reducing the variety of life forms throughout the North American continent by our day-to-day actions. When we convert wilderness areas or wetlands to agricultural, industrial and urban development, pollute the air and water with our wastes, or introduce invasive species, we threaten biodiversity. Unsustainable logging and fishing as well as oil spills endanger the rich flora and fauna of the Marine West Coast Forests. The degradation and loss of their habitat imperil the black-tailed prairie dog, aplomado falcon and the jaguar of the Chihuahuan Desert. According the World Wildlife Fund, half of North America’s most diverse ecoregions are now severely degraded.
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| The complex migratory routes of various North American bird species demonstrate the need to guarantee the conservation of habitat in all three countries in order to protect any one of those species. | For migrating species, the loss or degradation of just one of the habitats they rely on throughout the continent could spell their demise. Monarch butterflies, for example, require the presence of hospitable environments in each of the three countries. They are not alone. Many species of bats, butterflies, fish, birds, whales, and other marine mammals depend on healthy ecosystems spread across the three North American countries. Of those species whose continued existence we know is already threatened,14 are shared by all three countries, 35 by Mexico and the United States, 15 by Canada and the United States, and seven by Canada and Mexico.
How can we protect this abundant but fragile biodiversity as it exists in North America? Fortunately, many nongovernmental organizations, governmental agencies and private, academic and indigenous organizations are working to conserve North America’s natural wealth. CEC seeks to complement this work by building on existing efforts and drawing on its own special capabilities. This includes cultivating a North American perspective on our shared continent and fostering cooperation in environmental protection so that our three nations work together
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Photo: Jurgen Hoth
Five experts use consensus mapping to identify priority regions for biodiversity conservation. From left to right: Jorge Soberón Mainero, Larry Master, Michael Soule, Gerardo Ceballos and Paul Paquet. | to protect and conserve the entire spectrum of habitats essential not just to migratory and non-migratory species but also to the very well-being of their citizens.
But where to begin? Given the sheer size and complexity of this challenge, CEC chose to focus on specific regions, selected through an open, multi-layered process, as the approach that would best suit its capabilities and resources. Its work in biodiversity conservation would then begin in geographical regions of highest conservation priority.
In one of the first collaborative efforts of its kind in North America, 21 leading ecologists attended a workshop at the CEC Secretariat on 28–29 June 2000, to select these special regions. They came from academia, the nongovernmental community and the governments of the three countries, and they brought their expertise on birds, mammals, vegetation, general ecology and marine ecosystems. Working in teams and using a round table computer-mapping tool based on participant consensus, the experts drew on their experience and knowledge to produce a series of maps. The first portrayed what the experts determined to be the most ecologically significant regions in North America. The second depicted the most threatened regions. Overlaying these two maps yielded 14 important regions
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| Click here for more information about CEC's project on North America's most ecologically important and threatened regions, including an interactive map showing the different layers. | in North America that are both most biologically significant and most threatened.
A second phase in the selection process was to identify from among the 14 important regions those in which CEC has the most opportunity to make a difference in conservation. The first criterion for this process was to give preference to those regions that are shared or linked across our nations’ borders—in recognition of CEC’s role in conserving migratory species and protecting transboundary ecosystems. A second criterion was to favor regions in which CEC is already working through its ongoing programs or through grants from the North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC). This will permit CEC to tackle biodiversity conservation in a more integrated fashion and make the best use of limited financial resources.
The third criterion relates to one of the cornerstones of CEC’s work: public participation. Through questionnaires, interviews and workshops, CEC sought the public’s input on which regions should be targeted for the conservation of North American biodiversity.
Armed with the results of this extraordinary exercise, which involved biological expertise, and detailed regional knowledge embedded in an open and transparent process, CEC is now in the process of selecting two priority regions from among the 14 in which to begin its work. Here, in some of North America’s most biologically important and threatened regions, CEC will help the three countries to conserve the essence of their unique, shared biological heritage.
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Jürgen Hoth 
Tara Wilkinson 