WWF GLOBAL 200

WWF's Living Planet Campaign calls on governments, institutions, businesses and people to take significant actions to help preserve the world's endangered spaces - places we call the Global 200; to protect endangered species; and to address the global threats that put all living things in harm's way.

The Global 200 are outstanding examples of the Earth's diverse terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats - areas where the Earth's biological wealth is most distinctive or rich, where its loss will be most severely felt, and where we must fight the hardest for conservation.

In the course of the Voyage of the Odyssey, the Odyssey will visit a number of the designated WWF Global 200 ecoregions. The Odyssey's trial voyage between August and November 1999 was conducted in the Gulf of California, one of the 61 marine regions included in the Global 200 project.

Upon leaving San Deigo in early 2000, the Odyssey's next port of call will be the Galapagos Islands - another a Global 200 ecoregion.

The Galapagos Islands are an isolated archipelago about 600 miles west of Ecuador. The islands are a relatively unspoiled ecological and evolutionary treasure trove, featuring a wide range of habitats and a unique range of plants and animals, most of which are found nowhere else on Earth.

Non native species threaten the survival of native Galapagos wildlife. They compete with native species for food, destroy essential habitat, and prey on the eggs and young of reptiles and birds.

Heavy demand for certain marine products, such as sea cucumbers and shark fins, has led to overfishing, which in turn has caused declines in marine populations that may take decades to reverse. Poaching and fires caused by human activity further threaten the native plants and creatures of Galapagos.

Click here for more information about the Global 200.