This assessment represents a rough, first-cut attempt to estimate the status of global frontier areas, and should be viewed as a work in progress. The maps and data contained within this report are not intended to be used to define conservation or investment priorities, or to otherwise provide input into regional or national planning and assessment activities. WRI will work with data partners over coming years to improve on the base maps and the accuracy of these results. Readers should note that:
- Data availability and quality varies between regions. For example, frontier forest is likely underestimated in Central Zaire and possibly portions of Brazil, due to the fact that few scientists have explored that region (and therefore that the status of these forests is relatively unknown).
- Naturally-fragmented forest ecosystems, such as areas of montane forest cover found in portions of East Africa, do not register as frontier forest in this study due to their small size. However, in some cases these areas may fully qualify as intact, relatively undisturbed natural forests.
- Comparability of results has been effected by expert bias. Map reviewers varied in how strictly or loosely they have applied our criteria in defining sites and how they assessed the magnitude of any given threat. As noted above, WRI attempted to minimize this bias by seeking input from at least 10-15 experts for any one part of the world (to cross-check on and harmonize results) and by seeking extensive outside review of the draft maps to insure that data are relatively comparable between regions.
