Most of the tremendous amount of information on individual forests that exists is scattered far and wide and buried within the walls of isolated institutions. Much of it lives only in the minds of biologists and foresters who are experts on a single forest region.

Working with several partners -- including WCMC and the World Wildlife Fund WRI wove together some of this diverse data, knowledge, and expertise. First we developed a preliminary map of "candidate frontier forests" large forested areas with few roads or modern settlements and sent it to 90 forest experts around the world. Using criteria WRI developed, ten to fifteen experts for each region commented on proposed frontier areas confirming sites as frontier forests, rejecting sites, or redrawing their shape and boundaries. (See "Definitions Used in this Study") [19]

Experts also supplied information on the status of frontiers they identified if and how these forests are endangered by development. They also answered our queries about future threats, specifying whether frontiers were in timber concessions or housed such high-value resources as timber, oil, or gold.

Using a geographic information system, [20]. WRI combined all of these site-specific data into a single global database and a series of regional maps. Far from perfect, these maps nonetheless provide the first realistic picture of the location and status of the world's frontier forests. In the coming months and years, WRI will work with partners around the globe to update and improve the maps as more information becomes available and to get them to decision-makers in whose hands the fate of frontier forests rests.

References and notes

19. This study was limited to mapping frontier forests within closed forest ecosystems. WRI was unable to map large natural tracts of woodland area (more open forest, generally located in drier regions of the world, between closed forest and savannah), because no global map exists depicting wooded areas of the world.

20. Geographic Information Systems are used to store, analyze and display spatially-referenced (map) data.