Regional planning is imperative if North America has any hope of retaining continental biodiversity and environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable development.

This timely collection of essays presents new protected area theory, method, and practice as an explicit part of regional planning. With a North American focus, these essays consider the history of ecology, policy, and planning of protected areas in the context of the fundamental need for a linkage with ongoing regional planning. Protected areas and regional planning must be pursued, not as separate, but rather as interrelated activities if both are to achieve their place in decision-making in North America.