| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
FOCUS ON LATIN AMERICA
AMAZONIA
European Working Group on Amazonia (EWGA)
Netherlands Committee of IUCN (the World Conservation Union)
has a new website at http://www.amazonia.net
containing information on the activities of the European Working Group on Amazonia
and its 250+ members. EWGA is mainly concerned with conservation of biodiversity
and natural resources of Amazonia and encourages information exchange on the
pressing issues of land rights and demarcation, mining, logging, hydrocarbon
exploration and production, and infrastructure development within the Amazon
region.
EOS Amazon Project
This project is a NASA Earth Observation System (EOS) Interdisciplinary Investigation. The purpose of this research project is to understand the biogeochemistry, hydrology, and sedimentation of the Amazon River and its drainage basin (http://boto.ocean.
washington.edu/eos/index.html)
Amanaka'a Amazon Network
At http://www.amanakaa.org/ the Amanaka'a Amazon Network provides information on its activities and events. Amanaka'a Amazon Network is a non-profit environmental education organization with a mission: to support the peoples of the Amazon Rainforest in their efforts to live and work in harmony with their environment.
BOLIVIA
BOLFOR
At http://bolfor.chemonics.net/index.htm
the Bolivia Sustainable Forest Management Project provides information on its
activities, publications etc. The project includes three pilot research sites.
Several permanent plots have been established to study forest growth. Forest
ecology and impact of forest exploration are also monitored.
BRAZIL
EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation)
Embrapa's mission is to generate, promote and transfer knowledge and technology for sustainable development of the agricultural, agribusiness and forestry sectors for the welfare of Brazilian society.
(http://www.sede.embrapa.br/english/).
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE PESQUISAS DA AMAZONIA
http://www.cr-am.rnp.br/inpahome.html
provides information in Portugese on the research activities of INPA in Manaus,
Brazil. Some of the homepage is in English such as the SHIFT project (Studies
in Human Impact on Forests and Floodplains in the Tropics). http://www.cr-am.rnp.br/shift/shifteng.htm
Base de Dados Tropical
The Base de Dados Tropical (Tropical Data Base - BDT) is a department within the Fundação Tropical de Pesquisas e Tecnologia "André Tosello", a private Brazilian non-profit foundation in São Paulo, Brazil, at: http://www.bdt.org.br/bdt/. This bioinformatics facilty provides access to their databases as well as many other sources.
COLOMBIA
Tropenbos-Colombia Programme
The Tropenbos Foundation, in cooperation with the University of Amsterdam and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute at http://www.humboldt.org.co Projects and publications at http://www.tropenbos.nl/
COSTA RICA
INBIO
The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
(INBio) in Costa Rica is a non-profit, socially oriented scientific institution.
Their mission is to promote a new awareness of the value of biodiversity, and
thereby achieve its conservation and use to improve the quality of life ( http://www.inbio.ac.cr/)
CATIE
Centro Agronómico Tropical de
Investigación y Enseñanza is a scientific research station in
Costa Rica with information in Spanish at: http://www.catie.ac.cr/catie/.
OTS
The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) is a non-profit consortium of 55 universities and research institutions in the United States and Latin America dedicated to providing leadership in education, research, and the wise use of natural resources in the tropics. To this end, OTS maintains three field sites in Costa Rica: La Selva Biological Station, Palo Verde Field Station, and Las Cruces Biological Station. More information on participating institutes and their activities, including research data at: http://www.ots.ac.cr/
GUYANA
Tropenbos - Guyana Programme
The Tropenbos-Guyana Programme (http://www.tropenbos.nl/tropenbos/Guyindex) is a joint effort of Tropenbos, University of Utrecht, University of Guyana and other research institutes in both Guyana and the Netherlands.
Iwokrama
The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation & Development is an autonomous international conservation, research and development organisation formed by agreement between the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat
http://www.sdnp.org.gy/iwokrama/.
PERU
APECA
APECA, Inc. (Association Promoting
Education and Conservation of the Amazon) is a non-profit organization dedicated
to the conservation of the Peruvian Amazon rain forest, its native peoples and
their cultures. http://www.apeca.org/
Rainforest in Surinam
Excellent pages on the rainforest in Surinam can be seen at:http://www.euronet.nl/users/
Flora Mesoamericana
The first major regional flora ever written in
Spanish, Flora Mesoamericana, is a collaborative effort of the Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.mobot.org/) the Instituto de Biología (http://132.248.13.40/) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, http://www.unam.mx/), the Natural History Museum, London (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/), and numerous specialists world-wide. The Flora describes, for the first time, all the vascular plants growing in the most southeastern states of Mexico (including the Yucatán Peninsula) and all the Central American republics. The results of the project are published at http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/fm/. The Internet version of Flora Mesoamericana (W3FM) is organized in a checklist format in which each botanical name has its own page that is linked to other pages.