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There is an urgent need to examine the range of ecosystems that is currently protected in national parks and reserves, to point out those examples that are unprotected and to establish a rational programme of priorities for protecting as complete a series as possible. The International Biological Programme has pioneered the field of large-scale survey work for the collection of data of relevance to this need and has contributed to the development of information retrieval techniques for handling the data. The first part of the paper discusses the rationale of the development of the data base and its modus operandi. The system is illustrated by two examples of retrieval and analysis for specific enquiries; the distribution of four species of Pinus, and the occurrence of grazing, logging and burning in national parks and equivalent reserves in the United States. The second part of the paper deals with system design, details of programming for the data base, and retrieval strategy. It is intended as an independent section which may be skipped if the reader has no interest in the finer points of the data base itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the issues related to conservation biology in the U.S. Drainage of Plum Creek; Economic changes in Oberlin, Ohio; Creation of electronic quick mail system to reduce paper use.

Comments on issues related to the publication of the journal 'Conservation Biology' in the U.S. Expansion on the source scope of the papers; Effect of the journal on the environmental policy; Gap between conservation biology academicians and practitioners.

The section introduces several articles in the special section of the December 2013 issue of "Conservation Biology," which included case studies and papers describing how effects of climate change can be incorporated in risk analyses for aquatic species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).