Island Biogeography from east to west, from the paleotropical outlier islands, the Hawaiian archipelago and the Marquesas, to the biotically rich continental islands of southeast Asia The PABITRA concept arose from the concluding chapter of a recent book (MuellerDombois and Fosberg, 1998) with the chapter heading ‘‘The Future of Island Vegetation.’’ Simply put, the indigenous island vegetation only has a future if the scientific community and conservation managers redouble their efforts in learning to understand the function of island biodiversity and thereby take appropriate conservation measures Another impetus came from a Japanese research initiative, called DIWPA, Diversitas in the Western Pacific and Asia This program is the Pacific-Asia representative of the new worldwide program ‘‘DIVERSITAS,’’ promoted by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) with support from UNESCO and ICSU (The International Council of Scientific Unions in Paris, France) The promotion of DIVERSITAS started effectively with a week-long forum titled ‘‘Biodiversity, Science and Development: Towards a New Partnership’’ in September 1994 (Youne`s, 1996) Since then, DIWPA has focused on a ‘‘Green Belt,’’ a north-south transect in western Asia for monitoring biodiversity of forests and freshwater lake systems at 42 transect sites A parallel running ‘‘Blue Belt’’ is also planned with focus on coastal zones and nearshore marine habitats The PABITRA Initiative is considered a separate, but attached, ‘‘Pacific Island Branch of DIWPA,’’ working cooperatively under the Ecology, Conservation, and Environmental Protection (ECEP) Division of the Task Force on Biodiversity in the Pacific Science Association, which is chaired by the writer See also: Biogeography, Overview Dispersal Biogeography Species–Area Relationships Succession, Phenomenon of References Ashton PS (1964) Ecological studies in mixed dipterocarp forests of Brunei State Oxford Forestry Memoirs, no 25 Borman FH and Buell MF (1964) Old-age stand of hemlock-northern hardwood forest in central Vermont Bull Torrey Bot Club 91(6): 451–465 407 Bourdeau PF and Oosting HJ (1959) The maritime live oak forest in North Carolina Ecology 40(1): 148–152 Bray JR and Curtis JT (1957) An ordination of the upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin Ecol Monogr 27: 325–349 Clements FE (1916) Plant succession An analysis of the development of vegetation Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute Cox CB and Moore PD (1993) Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach, 5th ed Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications Crews TE, Kitayama K, Fownes JH, et al (1995) Changes in soil phosphorus fractions and ecosystem dynamics across a long chronosequence in Hawaii Ecology 76(5): 1403–1424 Daubenmire RF (1968) Plant Communities: A Text Book of Plant Synecology New York: Evanston & London, Harper & Row Fox RL, de la Pena RS, Gavenda RT, et al (1991) Amelioration, revegetation, and subsequent soil formation in denuded bauxitic materials Allertonia 6(2): 128–184 Hengeveld R (1990) Dynamic Biogeography Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Holdridge LR (1967) Classification and characterization of tropical forest vegetation Recent Adv Trop Ecol II: 502–507 Huggett RJ (1998) Fundamentals of Biogeography London, New York: Routledge MacArthur RH (1972) Geographical Ecology: Patterns in the Distribution of Species New York: Harper and Row MacArthur RH and Wilson EO (1963) An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography Evolution 17: 373–387 MacArthur RH and Wilson EO (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press Mueller-Dombois D (1986) Perspectives for an etiology of stand-level dieback Ann Rev Ecol Syst 17: 221–243 Mueller-Dombois D, Bridges KW, and Carson HL (eds.) 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