ETFRN NEWS 29

Editorial

A large part of the decline in global biodiversity is considered to be due to humans converting natural ecosystems of great biological richness to simpler ones as agricultural and forested lands after timber exploitation. As a consequence the tropical landscape in the coming decades will continue to move inevitably towards a patchwork of parks and protected areas surrounded by a mosaic of farms and plantations, looking rather like the European landscape of today. The question is now how best to conserve what is left as 'rural,' and how to lessen the rate of species and habitat loss through wise management. Here the spatial arrangement of the converted units will be crucial.

In the last decade environmental considerations of biodiversity have received increasing attention by foresters and agriculturalists. Further, it is evident that along the complex gradient between virgin forest and monoculture exists ample opportunity for intelligent maintenance of some biodiversity. However, this requires a willingness locally, regionally and globally: the most promising response may come at indeed the local level. For example, recently emerging local initiatives that promote highly diverse and complex managed systems such as natural forest management, non-timber product extraction, and agroforestry, often with the support of national and/or international institutions, are proving particularly promising. Irrespective of their origin, approaches for managing tropical ecosystems for both biodiversity maintenance and meeting human needs will require the effective integration of both local knowledge and experience with a sound understanding of ecological processes and functions.

In this ETFRN Newsletter we bring together many diverse and multi-disciplinary studies aimed at recording, indicating and analysing change in biodiversity in the tropics where forests have been managed or converted. Timber extraction effects are obvious, but less well appreciated are the effects of fire, hunting, gathering of non-timber forest products, weed invasion, and habitat fragmentation and isolation. Epiphytes and various insect groups can be used as good indicators of ecosystem change. However, at the very core of all this work is the need for taxonomic expertise to identify material, provide floras and guides, and underpin applied ecological research. The wide range of topics and experiences presented in this Newsletter provides an overview of some of the most urgent issues being addressed today within the field of tropical biodiversity, and will hopefully contribute to the international dialogue and collaboration directed at working towards solutions.

Although the state of global biodiversity is grave, the situation is not hopeless as there are many simple and positive steps that can be taken to alleviate the rate of species loss under tropical land-use change. After reading the articles here, we ask that practitioners and politicians from both tropical and temperate countries pause for thought, and also utilise the information and expertise available as tools for making wiser and more well-informed decisions for the future.

DM Newbery (Bern, CH) and H. Asbjørnsen (Ås, N)

We are gratefull to David Newbery and Heidi Asbjørnsen for the editing and commissioning of articles in this issue of the ETFRN News. Contributions to the ETFRN News are always welcome.

Themes and copy deadlines for the next issues:

Participatory Forest Management 1 March
Countries with Low Forest Cover 1 June

Http://www.etfrn.org/etfrn/

Editor: Willemine Brinkman

Guest Editors for this issue: David Newbery, Heidi Asbjørnsen

Editorial assistance: Evelyn Whyte

Publications section : Peter Sips