Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rethinking the Role of Tropical Forest Science in Forest Conservation and Management

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Treetops at Risk

Abstract

The rapid deterioration of the global environment is no longer a surprise to anyone (Dirzo and Raven 2003; Bawa et al. 2004; Wright 2005; Barnosky et al. 2012; Cardinale et al. 2012), but not much tangible progress has occurred to curb the deterioration and unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources (Tollefson and Gilbert 2012). There is no better example of this than tropical forests (FAO 2005), which continue to disappear despite the serious implications of this loss on important ecosystems services such as carbon cycling, climate regulation, and biodiversity (Costanza et al. 1997; Bonan 2008; Chazdon 2008; Sugden et al. 2008).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    A total of 90 countries are considered tropical countries by FAO. Excluded from the model were countries with under 10, 000 ha of forest: Singapore, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevin, Djibuti, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Vincent.

  2. 2.

    Alternative country names were explored using the Wikipedia site “alternative country names.” Examples of countries with publications under alternative country names included Brazil (Brasil), Madagascar (Malagasy Republic), and Congo (Zaire), although the percent of total publications under alternative names was negligible.

  3. 3.

    The asterisk signifies a truncated word and includes all variants of the truncation in the search. For example, “forest*” includes forests, forestry, and forester. We also examined both Spanish and French variants of the search parameters and found that this did not significantly alter search results.

  4. 4.

    Data not available for 1990.

  5. 5.

    This search parameter would yield any publications that had the word “forest” (or its variants) as well as either the words that contain “manag” (such as management) or “conserv” (conservation). These added parameters reduced total bibliometric records by an average of 75 %.

  6. 6.

    Search was conducted among the top 15 most-studied countries, which represents 66 % of total publications record across all countries. The aforementioned subject areas, when used as search parameters in Web of Science, were all highly correlated with the search parameter “forest*” (0.88, 0.97, 0.95, 0.81, 0.91, and 0.92, respectively).

References

  • Barnosky AD, Hadly EA, Bascompte J, Berlow EL, Brown JH, Fortelius M, Getz WM, Harte J, Hastings A, Marquet PA, Martinez ND, Mooers A, Roopnarine P, Vermeij G, Williams JW, Gillespie R, Kitzes J, Marshall C, Matzke N, Mindell DP, Revilla E, Smith AB (2012) Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere. Nature 486:52–58

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bawa KS, Kress WJ, Nadkarni NM (2004) Beyond paradise—meeting the challenges in tropical biology in the 21st century. Biotropica 36:276–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzaz F, Ceballos G, Davis M et al (1998) Ecological science and the human predicament. Science 282:879

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F (2006) From community-based resource management to complex systems. Ecol Soc 11:45

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonan GB (2008) Forests and climate change: forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests. Science 320:1444–1449

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess JC (1993) Timber production, timber trade and tropical deforestation. Ambio 22:136–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler RA (2006) Deforestation rates jump in Uganda and Burundi, fall in Rwanda. www.mongabay.com. Accessed March 08, 2008

  • Cardinale BJ, Duffy JE, Gonzalez A, Hooper DU, Perrings C, Venail P, Narwani A, Mace GM, Tilman D, Wardle DA, Kinzig AP, Daily GC, Loreau M, Grace JB, Larigauderie A, Srivastava DS, Naeem S (2012) Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity. Nature 486:59–67

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Central Intelligence Agency (2008) The World Factbook – Puerto Rico.  ISSN 1553–8133

    Google Scholar 

  • Chazdon RL (2008) Beyond deforestation: restoring forests and ecosystem services on degraded lands. Science 320:1458–1460

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Costanza R, d’Arge R, Groot RD, Farberk S, Grasso M, Hannon B, Limburg K, Naeem S, O’Neill RV, Paruelo J, Raskin RG, Sutton P, Belt MVD (1997) The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387:253–260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cropper M, Griffiths C (1994) The interaction of population growth and environmental quality. Am Econ Rev 84:250–254

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirzo R, Raven PH (2003) Global state of biodiversity and loss. Annu Rev Environ Res 28:137–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2005) State of the World’s forests. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrington J, Boyd C (1997) Scaling up the participatory management of common pool resources. Dev Policy Rev 15:371–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agriculture Organization (1995) Forest resources assessment 1990: global synthesis. FAO forestry paper no. 124, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agriculture Organization (2006) Global forest resources assessment 2005. FAO forestry paper no. 147, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs HK, Ruesch AS, Achard F, Clayton MK, Holmgren P, Ramankutty N, Foley JA (2010) Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s. Proc Natl Acad Sci 107:16732–16737

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gullison RE, Losos EC (1993) The role of foreign debt in deforestation in Latin-America. Conserv Biol 7:140–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hillborn R, Ludwig D (1993) The limits of ecological research. Ecol App. 3:550–552

    Google Scholar 

  • Inman K (1993) Fueling expansion in the third-world—population, development, debt, and the global decline of forests. Soc Nat Res Intl J 6:17–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaimowitz D, Angelsen A (1998) Economic models of tropical deforestation: a review. CIFOR, Bogor

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayanja F, Byarugaba D (2001) Disappearing forests of Uganda: the way forward. Curr Sci 81:936–947

    Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig D, Mangel M, Haddad B (2001) Ecology, conservation, and public policy. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 32:481–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin PE, Umberger BR (2003) Trends in interdisciplinary and integrative graduate training: an NSFIGERT example. Quest 55:86–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masozeraa MK, Alavalapatib JR, Jacobson SK, Shresthab RK (2006) Assessing the suitability of community-based management for the Nyungwe Forest Reserve, Rwanda. For Policy Econ 8:206–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Science Foundation (2002) Merit review broader impacts criterion: representative activities. Available from http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf022/bicexamples.pdf

  • Palo M, Salmi J, Mery G (1987) Deforestation in the tropics: pilot scenarios based on qualitative analysis. In: Palo M, Salmi J (eds) Deforestation or development in the third World. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Helsinki

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitman NC, Azaldegui ML, Salas K, Vigo GT, Lutz DA (2007) Written accounts of an Amazonian landscape over the last 450 years. Conserv Biol 21:253–262

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rock MT (1996) The stork, the plow, rural social structure and tropical deforestation in poor countries? Ecol Econ 18:113–131

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez JP, Taber AB, Daszak P, Sukumar R, Valladares-Padua C, Padua S, Aguirre LF, Medellin RA, Acosta M, Aguirre AA, Bonacic C, Bordino P, Bruschini J, Buchori D, Gonzalez S, Mathew T, Mendez M, Mugica L, Pacheco LF, Dobson AP, Pearl M (2007) Environment—globalization of conservation: a view from the south. Science 317:755–756

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Salwasser H (1993) Sustainability needs more than better science. Ecol App. 3:587–589

    Google Scholar 

  • Shellenberger M, Nordhaus T (2004) The death of environmentalism. Available from http://www.thebreakthrough.org/images/Death_of_Environmentalism.pdf. Accessed March 2007

  • Stocks G, Seales L, Paniagua F, Maehr E, Bruna EM (2008) The geographical and institutional distribution of ecological research in the tropics. Biotropica 40:397–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sugden A, Smith J, Pennisi E (2008) The future of forests. Science 320:1435

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tenywa G (2008) Ugandan president continues to undermine national forest reserves. www.mongabay.com. Accessed March 18, 2008

  • Tollefson J, Gilbert N (2012) Earth summit: rio report card. Nature 486:20–23

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vuohelainen AJ, Coad L, Marthews TR, Malhi Y, Killeen TJ (2012) The effectiveness of contrasting protected areas in preventing deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru. Environ Manag 50:645–663

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright SJ (2005) Tropical forests in a changing environment. Trends Ecol Evol 20:553–560

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Alex Racelis & James Barsimantov

  2. Department of Biology, University of Texas Pan American, 1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, TX, 78539, USA

    Alex Racelis

Authors
  1. Alex Racelis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James Barsimantov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alex Racelis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Nature Research Center, North Carolina State University, 11 W. Jones Street, Raleigh, 27601, North Carolina, USA

    Margaret Lowman

  2. the Environment, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and, Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore, 560 064, India

    Soubadra Devy

  3. the Environment, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and, Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore, 560 064, India

    T. Ganesh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Racelis, A., Barsimantov, J. (2013). Rethinking the Role of Tropical Forest Science in Forest Conservation and Management. In: Lowman, M., Devy, S., Ganesh, T. (eds) Treetops at Risk. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7161-5_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation