232Geographic distribution

#### 232 Geographic distribution 232 Geographic distribution > > (1) Geographic distribution is the area or areas, or the volume of occupancy, in which a species, population or ecological community occurs, excluding cases of vagrancy in species. > > > (2) This may be assessed by estimating— > > > > > (a) the extent of occurrence (the area of the total geographic range that includes all extant populations of the species or all extant occurrences of the ecological community), or > > > > > (b) the area or volume of occupancy (the area or volume within the total range that is currently occupied by the species or ecological community, that is, it excludes unsuitable and unoccupied habitat), or > > > > > (c) the area or volume of suitable habitat (the area or volume within the total range that includes occupied and unoccupied suitable habitat, but excludes unsuitable habitat). > > > (3) The scale at which a geographic distribution is assessed should be appropriate to the biology of the species (or component species in ecological communities), the nature of threats and available data.