Identifying national priorities for conservation of biological diversity

[Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living] published in 1991, is a follow-up to the [World Conservation Strategy]. It formulates principles for sustainable living and the actions to put the principles into practice with the aim of integrating conservation and development. For conserving biological diversity every country should: establish a comprehensive national system of protected areas (with different categories), which is the core of other programmes that seek to maintain the diversity of ecosystems, species and wild genetic resources; for the diversity of species the protected-area system should ensure that protected areas are linked to other areas by corridors of suitable habitats along which species can disperse (Action 4.9); improve conservation of wild plants and animals (Action 4.10); improve knowledge and understanding of species and ecosystems (Action 4.11); use a combination of in situ and ex situ conservation to maintain species and genetic resources (Action 4.11); harvest wild resources sustainably (Action 4.13); support management of wild renewable resources by local communities, and increase incentives to conserve biodiversity (Action 4.14). The Strategy distinguishes 10 categories of protected areas, each providing distinctive benefits (Annex 4).