Ecoregion: contours of the concept

Abstract

By now, ecosystemic regionalisation has gone through several decades of conceptual development and localised application. Yet, it remains multiform and ‘open to interpretations’, both in theory and practice. The article contributes to accommodating ecoregion in social sciences and humanities. To that effect, proceeding from a review of specialised literature, it outlines the essence of ecoregional approach and formulates and discusses the key characteristics of the concept ‘ecoregion’ (vague definitions, holistic capture, systemic nature, and manageability). Then it presents ecoregion as one of the ideas underlying a wider environmental governance setting in the Adriatic area.

Keywords

• ecoregion
• regionalisation
• environment
• terminology