Ch. 5— Maintaining Biological Diversity Onsite • 129 



pace. Federal agencies could be directed to give 

 more support to interagency and Federal, State, 

 and private initiatives to support the MAB 

 agenda. 



The number and size of additional protected 

 areas required for ecosystem diversity mainte- 

 nance are unknowrn. Extensive inventory pro- 

 grams (e.g., the State heritage inventories of The 

 Nature Conservancy) have been initiated to de- 

 termine how to enhance coverage. But support 

 has been sporadic and progress is slow. TNC's 

 State-level approach and mobilization of pri- 

 vate sector support has been effective, so the 

 Federal Government could continue to support 

 this and similar programs. 



International organizations, led by lUCN and 

 the World Wildlife Fund/Conservation Foun- 

 dation, are promoting conservation of samples 

 of the world's ecosystems. The coverage of eco- 

 systems, indicated by comparing protected 

 areas to Udvardy's biogeographical classifica- 

 tion system, is encouraging but still incomplete. 

 The next major step will be to survey the de- 

 gree of actual protection in the designated nat- 

 ural areas. Such surveys could also identify gaps 

 in ecosystem protection at a finer biogeographic 

 level than Udvardy's classifications. Better in- 

 formation is needed, especially on aquatic eco- 

 system types such as coral reefs, to develop and 

 implement strategies for international ecosys- 

 tem conservation efforts. A U.S. Government 

 interagency task force could identify person- 

 nel for this task and ways in which their work 

 might serve the objectives of international con- 

 servation. 



Innovative Technologies for 

 Developing Countries 



Many onsite technologies have been devel- 

 oped in industrialized, temperate zone coun- 

 tries, and thus, they may not be appropriate for 

 developing countries' ecosystems, which are 

 mostly tropical and where the biological, so- 

 ciopolitical, and economic situations are fun- 

 damentally different. Hence, innovative tech- 

 nologies are especially needed in these areas. 



The biosphere reserves concept is one such 

 approach that appears to merit scrutiny and 



support. Continued U.S. Government support 

 of UNESCO's MAB program and ways to in- 

 crease support for MAB in developing coun- 

 tries could be explored in congressional com- 

 mittee hearings. 



Integrated land management that includes 

 conservation in development activities is 

 another approach that should be encouraged. 

 The OAS Integrated Regional Development 

 Planning could provide a model for other de- 

 velopment assistance agencies, such as AID or 

 the World Bank. 



Long-Term Multidisciplinary 

 Research 



The most important problems affecting im- 

 plementation of biological diversity mainte- 

 nance efforts are not amenable to resolution 

 by any one field of biology, or indeed by the 

 natural sciences alone. Biological diversity is 

 so broad that its maintenance requires meth- 

 ods from numerous disciplines, such as natu- 

 ral history, population biology, genetics, and 

 ecology. In addition, many other factors — eco- 

 nomic, political, and social— contribute to de- 

 cisions about the sizes, shapes, and locations 

 of protected areas. Application of social sci- 

 ences to diversity maintenance, for instance, 

 to help communicate the issue's importance to 

 decisionmakers at all levels, is probably the 

 most needed research area. 



The formation of a discipline called conser- 

 vation biology is an encouraging sign of the sci- 

 entific community's effort to start breaking 

 down traditional barriers among disciplines 

 and in ways of approaching problems. The goal 

 is to provide principles and tools for maintain- 

 ing biological diversity. Signs that the new dis- 

 cipline is gaining momentum include establish- 

 ment of a Center for Conservation Biology at 

 Stanford University, the creation of a depart- 

 ment of conservation biology at Chicago's Brook- 

 field Zoo, and the development of programs of 

 study at the University of Florida and at Mon- 

 tana State University. More recently, a profes- 

 sional Society for Conservation Biology with 

 its own journal. Conservation Biology, has been 

 established. 



