The Global 200 Strategy amitiously seeks to conserve the variety of species, ecosystems, and ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain life on earth. Toward this end, the World Wildlife Fund hs identified over 200 ecoregions (Global 200) recognized for their high conservation priority, and calls for concentrated conservation planning in these regions. Not surprisingly, of the wide array of ecosystem types included in the Global 200, forest ecosystems constitute the majority. In fact, 87 of the 136 terrestrial ecoregions fall into one of five Major Habitat Types – Tropical and Subtropical Moist Brodleaf Forests, Tropical Dry Forests, Tropical and Sustropical Conifer Forests, Temperate Conifer and Broadleaf Forests, and Boreal Forests and Taiga.
The purpose of this report is threefold: (1) discuss the concept of forest restoration from a conservation biology perspective; (2) outline the ecological characteristics, technical constraints, socio-political and economic influences, and overall restoration principles relevant to the Global 200 major habitat types and associated realms; and (3) place forest restoration within the larger context of worldwide forest conservation.
