WRI's Forest Frontiers Index speaks volumes about the countries' opportunities to protect frontier forests and about the immediacy of threats to these frontiers. Alternative methods for ranking countries tell different stories. Countries With Most of the World's Remaining Frontier Forest, for example, identifies the 12 countries with the largest area of frontier forest. All told, these countries account for 90 percent of what remains on Earth. Ten Countries with the Highest Plant Biodiversity in Their Frontier Forest lists countries with frontier forest likely to be of exceptional biodiversity value (based on the large numbers of plant species estimated to be found within them).

One important story -- beyond the scope of this assessment -- would be to rank countries according to the amount of threatened forest lying outside frontiers. Such an index would be useful for identifying countries where unique forest ecosystems are on the verge of extinction.