From the Editor's Desk

Abstract

IN a previous editorial (Recher 2002), I expressed an opinion that the opportunity should have been taken at the 1993 Conservation Biology meeting in Queensland to establish an Australasian Society for Conservation Biology. In my view, a local society would be preferable to supporting an Australasian branch of the North American Society of Conservation Biology. Mack et al. (2002) disagreed and encouraged us to support the Society for Conservation Biology's initiative to establish a regional branch. They also said that Pacific Conservation Biology should be supported as a regional journal and "expanded to reflect work being conducted throughout the region rather than its present focus on Western Australia". The last comment surprised me and I decided I needed to review the origin and content or scope of papers we have been publishing in Pacific Conservation Biology. It would be unfortunate if the journal did have a Western Australian focus, especially as my accepting Western Australia as part of the Pacific Region requires some creative geography. Such a review, I felt, would also identify subject areas and regions where we needed to make a greater effort to encourage papers for the journal.