Wilderness

Conservation International's Hotspots placed that organization at the forefront of global conservation efforts. Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places continues the efforts made in that previous volume, combining nearly 500 breathtaking images of untamed lands and rare glimpses of the people who inhabit them with the most current scientific analyses of their endangered ecosystems.

To qualify as "wilderness," the areas included must have 70 percent or more of their original vegetation, cover at least 10,000 square kilometers, and have fewer than five people per square kilometer. Wilderness identifies 37 wilderness areas around the globe—including tropical rain forests, wetlands, deserts, and arctic tundra, from Amazonia to the Congo Forests of Central Africa to the complex of North American deserts—and presents the research of nearly 200 specialists carried out over two years by Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Science with support from its Global Conservation Fund. The result is a detailed document of the biological riches that can be found in each of the wilderness areas, with chapters that describe and illustrate them, highlight the human cultures unique to each area, and explain the threats to each region and the conservation measures in place.

The result of a collaboration among CEMEX, Conservation International, and Agrupación Sierra Madre, Wilderness will enjoy the same reputation as the earlier Conservation International books—a volume that presents vital information on the earth's biodiversity and a realistic program of conservation complemented by state-of-the-art photography.