Conservation and sustainable use of tropical forest biodiversity

Tropical forests represent about 51% of the world’s forests and are the most biodiversity rich suite of terrestrial ecosystems on Earth. Over 400 million people live in or at the edge of these forests including the world’s 60 million native or indigenous peoples who rely partly or entirely on the forests for their livelihoods. Given that production forests (concessions, municipal forests, private holdings) represent up to 80% of the permanent forest estate in many tropical regions, a large number of forest dependent people are living in or near such production forests and are likely to be affected by whether these forests are or are not well managed. In spite of the efforts of the global community’s collective search for solutions to address the suboptimal use of forest lands and resources and to promote sustainable forest management (SFM), tropical forests are undergoing unprecedented pressure as population and demand for new agricultural land, forest products and ecosystem services increase. The number of tropical forests in which sustainability is a priority consideration, although low, is nevertheless expected to increase in the near future. The project aimed to: 1) developed and validated of improved guidelines for the conservation and sustainable use of tropical forest resources for avoiding local depletion (both in economic and ecological terms) of commercial species, and allowing the integration of biodiversity concerns (including bushmeat) and other environmental or cultural services into multiple forest management; 2) developed tools and identified stand- and landscape-level tradeoffs in multiple-use management as they relate to regulatory frameworks, certification, knowledge/capacity and silviculture; and 3) proposed multiple-use models that reconcile timber and other forest goods and services while satisfying divergent stakeholders’ interests at both the stand and landscape levels.