This volume describes the major issues facing protected areas, both terrestrial and marine, and discusses the approaches needed to address these issues. An additional section, drawing upon the expertise of CNPPA's vice-chair, marine, and members of 14 task forces, specifically addresses protected area issues in the coastal marine environment.

Ecosystem management has emerged in the past several years as the new paradigm for managing public and private land. It combines the principles of ecosystem-level ecology with the policy requirements of resource and public land management. This collection of selected readings will serve as an introduction to the concepts of biological diversity, ecological process, biotic integrity, and ecological sustainability that underlie ecosystem management.