Tools for implementing the ecosystem approach

Increased interest in the ecosystem approach to conservation has led to the rapid development of tools and methodologies for its implementation. The Earth Conservation Toolbox project is reviewing available tools and assembling these in a user friendly, web-based database and making them available free of charge to any user as part of the Conservation Commons initiative.

The principle aim of the Toolbox is to provide a user-friendly way of accessing practical advice on conservation, but it will hopefully have some additional benefits:

• Encouraging conservation programmes to look beyond protected area networks to the entire land and water mosaic.
• Exposing users to approaches from different sources, including governments, NGOs, development agencies and the private sector.
• Helping to implement the “ecosystem approach”, developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Fostering collaboration between partners, including the development of tools to fill identified gaps and testing and comparing different approaches

The toolbox is a collaborative effort between WWF, The Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Equilibrium Consultants, the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and the Convention on Biological Diversity. WWF would like to acknowledge funding from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands.