Canopy Walkways for Conservation: A Tropical Biologist's Panacea or Fuzzy Metrics to Justify Ecotourism

Abstract

Despite extensive scientific research undertaken in tropical eco systems over the last few decades, approximately half of tropical for ests have been destroyed and rates of deforestation continue to accelerate worldwide (Curran et al. 2004). Thousands of indigenous cultures and millions of local people need these deteriorating forest resources for their livelihoods, and the challenges of tropical forest conservation looms as a global priority (Laurance & Perez 2006). Meanwhile, the conventional metric used to gauge the success of professional academics in tropical biology is the publication of tech nical papers, which seems all too disconnected from the metrics of forest conservation. A new consciousness is sorely needed (Leisero witz & Fernandez 2008; but see Webb 2005, B?scher 2008). Most tropical biologists admittedly enter the profession with a hope to contribute to conservation of these systems, but their hundreds of thousands of hours dedicated to field research and publications do not seem proportional to reversing conservation. If conventional business formulae were applied to tropical research, a likely outcome would be downsizing the industry. New metrics that incorporate conservation benchmarks and facilitate sharing best practices be tween professional scientists and local stakeholders could foster forest conservation through actions that create sustainable economies. Canopy research appeared to offer an ideal case study to ex amine the socioeconomic plus scientific metrics of success, with its spin-off ecotourism operations such as skywalks and ziplines pro viding data sets to quantify their benefits to local stakeholders (Lowman 2004a). In short, can canopy access tools contribute to local economies and stimulate forest conservation? And second, can projects that promote forest conservation provide acceptable met rics to gauge success among scientific researchers (see also Garnett etal. 2009, Sunderland et al. 2009)? Canopy ecology is a relatively new component of tropical for est research, with a toolkit of creative access techniques developed over the last two decades (Lowman 2004b). Business ventures in volving canopy exploration are often incorporated into large-scale eco-developments that include bird-watching, education-based na ture tours, spas, and holistic medicine (Weaver 2001). These eco tourism opportunities usually meet with generic approval under the guise of'green businesses'. In this commentary, I grapple with the apparent oxymoron of working as a biological researcher yet build