Ever since, oil companies have been eager to tap the rich formations they believe lie under its ecologically fragile coastal plain.

First, the Sperrgebiet is a pristine, ecologically fragile desert.

These effects would exacerbate the degradation of the ecologically fragile areas in which poor communities are concentrated pushing thousands back into poverty.

Since the 1920's, a lot of people in government and agriculture have argued we should retire the least productive, most ecologically fragile prairie land.

Like most alpine areas, the Himalayas are ecologically fragile.

It also funds scientific research, especially into Canada's ecologically fragile Arctic.

However, they have typically lived in ecologically fragile regions that do not easily support subsistence.

The sites are rich in oil and gas deposits but ecologically fragile.

The ecologically fragile mountain forests (such as those in the Andes) are particularly vulnerable.

Environmentalists are lobbying him to retain conservationists on the panel, which oversees land use in the ecologically fragile region.