Living Planet: Preserving Edens of the Earth

Our planet is a precious jewel, a unique oasis of life in a seemingly barren cosmos. Looking at Earth from outer space, one astronaut described it as "piercingly beautiful." But a rapidly growing human population has put a strain on Earth's resources and has wrought alarming and permanent changes in the environment. Untold species of plants and animals have been wiped out forever, and others are in imminent danger of becoming extinct. Ecologist Gordan Orians has suggested that we may be entering a new geologic age -- the Homigicene -- with humankind as the great leveler. "We are carrying so many organisms around the world and depositing them in so many places where they did not formerly live that we are blurring the distinctness of the different regions. At the time, we are destroying habitats where diversity might be maintained."

Long at the forefront of nature conservation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched its revolutionary Living Planet Campaign in response to this dire situation. Instead of focusing on individual species and fragments of land and water, WWF scientists have identified 237 ecoregions -- known for simplicity's sake as the Global 200 -- that best exemplify the terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregions on Earth. (For your convenience, a removable, full-color map of Global 200 is included in the back of this book.) The organization is working with governments, industry, and local people around the world to protect these regions from further damage -- the equivalent of creating a fleet of arks safeguarding an irreplaceable cargo for a voyage into the future.

Living Planet: Preserving Edens of the earth highlights the precious web of life that WWF's campaign seeks to help save. Lavishly illustrated throughout with stunning four-color photographs, the book features the work of three acclaimed nature photographers: Frans Lanting, Galen Rowell, and David Doubilet. All pioneers in outdoor photography, they have captured on film the fragility and wonder of life on Earth, from the forests of the Andes to the coral reefs of Australia. By bringing the beauty of the Global 200 into living rooms around the world, WWF hopes that readers will be inspired to share in its determination to leave our children a living planet.