Questions for discussion

I suggest that we try to develop a matrix that will help us to evaluate the various approaches described above. Specifically, I'd like to try to answer the following questions for each approach. When we've finished that, we'll attempt a synthesis and see how we'd approach the problem if we were responsible for setting global priorities for a conservation organization of which we were the leader.

• What conservation goal is the approach trying to achieve?

• What criteria are used to identify priority regions for conservation? Are those criteria consistent with the stated goal?

• What sources of data are used to achieve the goal? Are those sources adequate? If not, how might they be made adequate?