To focus CEPF investment in the Western Ghats, a prioritization of the 126 site outcomes was undertaken. Sites that are wholly irreplaceable because one or more species they contain are found nowhere else will be among the priorities for CEPF investment at the site level. In an attempt to objectively prioritize the remaining sites, a grid-based analysis of conservation value was undertaken (see Appendix 4 for details). A cumulative conservation value index was calculated for each grid. Criteria that were considered in the conservation value index included the number of globally threatened species, presence of regionally rare vegetation types and unique ecosystems such as Myristica swamps and the availability of relatively unfragmented forest and other natural habitats. The area within the hotspot boundary that can be considered to have natural vegetation and biodiversity attributes and for which spatial data and remotely sensed data were available was defined as the area of analysis for this exercise (Appendix 5). The unique habitats were identified on the basis of the index of evergreenness. The wettest and most evergreen sites which are closely associated with presence of closed canopy evergreen forest or unique evergreen communities such as the Myristica swamps were identified in each subregion. The rarest vegetation type in each subregion was identified using a current vegetation map. The quality of the forest cover was based on an “edginess” factor derived from analyses of remotely sensed data and the top 25 percent on this index was considered high quality. Numbers of globally threatened mammal, bird and amphibian species were considered, because data in the other taxonomic groups was considered not comprehensive enough to permit a region-wide analysis. The results of the conservation value index calculation revealed that substantial biodiversity at the species and site levels occur outside protected areas. We identified the grids falling in the upper quartile or the top 25 percent of the conservation value index as being high priority. These were overlaid on our site outcome boundaries to identify the 80 sites for CEPF funding (Figures 10 and 11). The results of the prioritization indicate that 80 percent of the high conservation value areas lie in and around (or adjacent to) existing protected areas, with the high conservation value of some of these neighboring unprotected areas resulting from factors such as intact forest cover or the presence – in relatively high densities – of unique and threatened vegetation types. Furthermore, 3,600 square kilometers of high-priority area was not contained within the existing protected area network. Priority sites are represented in each of the five corridors, with the Sahyadri-Konkan corridor having nine priority sites.