Send to email
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sanur, Bali (20 July 2010) – Indonesia’s forestry community will benefit from a new book being launched at this year’s International Meeting of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation, which runs all this week in Bali. The book, Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation, is a comprehensive global guide to this complex topic. Tropical rain forests are one of the region’s richest biological resources, and one of the most threatened. Accordingly the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research is disseminating 1,000 copies of the book to benefit individuals and institutions in Indonesia and other tropical forest countries.
‘We have worked hard to make this a readable and even a fun book’ said Douglas Sheil, currently director of the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, but who wrote the book whilst he was at CIFOR. ‘Our intention was to include the latest science on the subject by using case studies from around the world. Not surprisingly Indonesia features heavily.’
Rain forests are the world’s richest repository of terrestrial biodiversity. They support the livelihoods of many of the world’s population and are the source of many internationally traded commodities. They remain (despite decades of conservation attention) increasingly vulnerable to degradation and clearance, with profound though often uncertain future costs to global society. Understanding the ecology of these diverse biomes, and peoples’ dependencies on them, is fundamental to their future management and conservation.
Jaboury Ghazoul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), the book’s co-author, says that including forest peoples in the book was a critical concern for the authors. ‘People have long been integral to forest ecosystems, yet they are too often ignored in scientific treatments of the subject. Through the book, we want to share our enthusiasm for forests, and in so doing inspire our readers to meet the current and future challenges that we face.’
Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation introduces and explores what rain forests are, how they arose, what they contain, how they function, and how humans use and impact them. The book starts by emphasising the spectacular diversity that is the motivation for their conservation. The central chapters describe the origins of rain forest communities, the variety of rain forest formations, and their ecology and dynamics. The book’s final section considers historical and current interactions of humans and rain forests. It explores biodiversity conservation as well as livelihood security for the many communities that are dependent on rain forests – inextricable issues that represent urgent priorities for scientists, conservationists, and policy makers.
Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation is published by Oxford University Press (UK).
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199285877.do
ENDS
About the Authors
Jaboury Ghazoul is Professor of Ecosystem Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and Editor-in-Chief of Biotropica, the journal of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation.
Douglas Sheil is director of the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Uganda, but formerly worked for ten years at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia and remains a CIFOR Research Associate.
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
CIFOR advances human wellbeing, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to inform policies and practices that affect forests in developing counties. CIFOR helps ensure that decision making that affects forests is based on solid science and principles of good governance, and reflects the perspectives of developing countries and forest-dependent people. CIFOR is one of 15 centres within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. For more information, please visit:
www.cifor.org
www.ForestsClimateChange.org
Center for International Forestry Research
CIFOR advances human wellbeing, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to inform policies and practices that affect forests in developing counties. CIFOR helps ensure that decision-making that affects forests is based on solid science and principles of good governance, and reflects the perspectives of developing countries and forest-dependent people. CIFOR is one of 15 centres within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. For more information, please visit: www.cifor.org