The goals and challenges of the March 30-31, 2001 Yale ISTF Conference entitled: "Transboundary protected areas: The viability of regional conservation strategies"

On March 30 and 31 of 2001, the Yale chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (Yale ISTF) convened scientists, managers, policy-makers, and community leaders for an interdisciplinary exploration of issues and challenges associated with the management of transboundary protected areas. Thirteen papers and four posters were presented at the conference held at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in New Haven, CT entitled Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies. This brief introductory paper provides background concerning the goals and challenges put forth by the conference organizers. Conference participants were challenged to reconcile the seemingly "top-down" eco-regional and transboundary approaches to conservation with currently popular "bottom-up" approaches, to determine if lessons from community-based conservation and other local approaches could be applied to transboundary efforts. The papers contained within this volume reveal that cooperation and leadership among diverse stakeholders at multiple levels and scales will be necessary for successful and sustainable conservation across international boundaries, calling for the simultaneous employment of both top-down and bottom-up conservation strategies.