Tropical Forestry as if People Mattered

Abstract

Despite great advances in our understanding of tropical forest ecology and management in recent years, the area of well-managed tropical forests and the rate of reforestation are insignificant compared to that undergoing rapid deforestation around the world. This failure of tropical forestry is frightening because forest management is the only hope for the conservation of the tropical forests, the most biologically complex yet least understood ecosystems on Earth. Many important species and biotypes of economically important tropical trees, and the ecosystems and communities in which they are found, have already been lost or are threatened. Traditional forest management is usually sophisticated and sustainable; it includes many practices, from the management of fallows in shifting agriculture to the protection, selection, and enrichment of seminatural forests. Natural forests of most tropical areas increasingly appear to be the product of human intervention. The major forces driving deforestation are government subsidies and incentives that promote unsustainable practices that are culturally and environmentally destructive. New approaches for tropical forestry must be developed, beginning with detailed analyses of past and present tropical forest management and of the interaction between tropical forests and local cultures. A better understanding of ecosystem dynamics also needs to be developed.