The essay "Measuring Biodiversity" on page 284 describes the many-faceted task of measuring biodiversity. It is upon these measurements that many governments turn to for guidance in an effort to manage different ecosystems. However this task becomes more difficult when ecosystems extend across state and national borders.

The signing of the 1992 United Nations Biodiversity Convention at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development emphasized the importance of protecting biodiversity as a cornerstone of sustainability. Managing any ecosystem is a challenging task, but managing across different borders requires cooperation between jurisdictions that may have very different cultural, economic, and legal contexts, and fundamentally different value systems. Nevertheless, worldwide, hundreds of biodiverse systems are now protected by partnerships of neighboring governments. Examples of these include the Waddensee program (coastal Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands), the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem (Kenya and Tanzania), La Amistad Biosphere Reserve (Costa Rica and Panama) and the Klamath-Syskiyou Forests (California and Oregon).

However, developing an effective biodiversity management partnership between two or more nations is not an easy task. A particularly interesting example of the difficulties encountered in transboundary biodiversity management can be found in the Bialowieza Forest. Following the dissolution of the former USSR, many eastern European countries trying to improve their economic stability (Poland and Belarus among them) began to collaborate on the management of biodiversity. Increasing ecotourism proved to be one of the many incentives for such management. However, in the case of the Bialowieza Forest, which lies partly in Poland and partly in Belarus, a wire fence has divided the Polish and Belarusian parts of the forest since 1981.

Originally protected as a game reserve, the Bialowieza Forest supports several large mammal species including deer, European bison, lynx, and wolf. Two entirely different management approaches have been used in the two components. In Poland, the emphasis is on commercial forest and game management, with deer particularly encouraged because of their value as game. Only 10% of the park is protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site, meaning that in that portion, hunting and logging are prohibited and only sick or injured bison are culled. By contrast, all of the Belarusian part of the park has National Park and Biosphere Reserve status, and only dead trees are removed (although deer and boar hunting is permitted). In that region, pride about Biosphere Reserve status may have led to greater awareness about system preservation rather than protection-or removal-of key species.

The different management approaches in Bialowieza Forest are due to the values and traditions of the two cultures. As a result, different legal and conservation regimes, administrative systems, and community attitudes prevail on each side of the fence. Although coordinated management would be ideal, it may be difficult to achieve given these challenges. At present, technical specialists from both countries and the United States are working on development of a biodiversity database that will provide a framework for collaborative study and management of the park.