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Before discussing sustainable tropical forestry and biodiversity conservation, I would like to make some brief remarks about the status of and threats to tropical forests. Tropical deforestation is occurring, but in most of the megadiversity countries the relative rate of loss is not particularly high. We can make some assumptions and perhaps some tenuous predictions, that if the rates of deforestation and the means by which deforestation is occurring continue, many of these countries will have forests remaining over the next few, and hopefully, several decades. Traditional ways of conserving biological diversity, that is, by creating protected areas such as national parks and equivalent reserves, will not protect all tropical forests.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) recommends that every country set aside and protect 10% of the national territory in national parks and equivalent reserves. Many megadiversity countries are protecting less than 5%, thus it is going to be a tremendous challenge to get them up to even that low minimum of 10% of the national territory in protected areas. That leaves forest-rich countries with vast areas of unprotected tropical forests -- tropical forests that are incredibly rich in biological diversity. A disproportionate amount of biodiversity -- particularly terrestrial biodiversity on our planet--occurs in tropical forests.

As you heard yesterday and very eloquently last night, we still do not have good information about just how biologically rich our planet is. Regardless of what that final figure is -- and we'll never have a definitive number -- whether it is 10 million, or even some of the more extreme estimates of 80 to 100 million species -- an increasing proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is, in fact, in tropical forests. An interesting feature [slide] is that the top 10 countries (out of 90 total) comprise 65% of all tropical forests in the world. These forest-rich countries play a very important role in biodiversity conservation. Many of my comments are based on the Amazon Basin, that enormous region roughly the same size as the lower 48 United States.

You saw a different color scheme of this slide earlier this morning in Michael Novacek's talk of priority areas for biodiversity conservation in the Amazon. In 1990, expert systematists, ecologists and conservation biologists were brought together to identify priority areas for conservation in Amazonia. Even though some are a bit peripheral, these priority areas cover about 85% of the Amazon Basin. Yet, while megadiversity countries generally do not have more than 5% of the national territory in protected areas, imagine the Brazilian government's reaction to the experts' recommendation (published in Science) that 85% of the Amazon should have high priority for conservation. It is simply not going to happen. I feel it is fundamentally important to the conservation of biodiversity in forest-rich countries, which are often megadiversity countries, that we find alternative ways to conserve biodiversity -- the theme of my talk today.

It's very easy to focus on the charismatic megafauna. I want to illustrate biodiversity with some of the lesser-known groups -- Michael [Novacek] set me up very well with his example of a military use of bats this morning. I'm going to show some of the incredible diversity, particularly at the guild level, of bats. This [slide] is a white bat -- the Honduran tent bat (Ectophylla alba) -- in someone's hand. Bats are very important pollinators. This is a Glossophaga pollinating a relative of the blueberries. Bats are particularly important dispersers of seeds. This Artibeus is carrying a fig; when the seeds are very tiny, as in the case of figs, the bat eats the fruit, ingesting the seeds, which pass through the gut unaffected. Some seeds have enhanced germination due to the passage through the gut. For larger seeds -- like some of the relatives of the Brazil nut (Lecythidaceae) -- the bats fly to a feeding roost, eat the attractive parts (funiculus) and drop the seed. That is how many tropical-forest animals disperse seeds.

This is an insectivorous bat, Tonatia, carrying a katydid off to dine. Some specialize on frogs, and there is a fascinating relationship of Trachops cirrhosus bats using their sonar to detect the calls of frogs and zeroing in on these specialized meals. One of the more extreme examples is the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus. All these are common bats and common foraging behaviors in the New World tropics.

We heard an outstanding talk yesterday by Melanie Stiassny about the status of fish biodiversity and the extinction spasm that is occurring in some areas, like Lake Victoria. In contrast, the Amazon Basin is very, very poorly known. It is famous, of course, for piranhas. More importantly, there is a whole guild of fruit-eating, seed-dispersing fish in the Amazon Basin that are well in tune with the seasonally flooded forests that occur in these vast ecosystems. You can see the upper one there, just about to capture a falling fruit. Here's an example of the same type of fish, the pacu, opened up to see a tremendous number of seeds. Sorry to do that right after lunch. The Amazon also has gigantic catfish, as you see on this man's back. Of course, local people eat many of these fish; some of the most wonderful fish meals can be had in the towns and hamlets along the Amazon and its tributaries.

There are also some quite striking mammals, such as the two species of freshwater river dolphins that have evolved independently in the Amazon. But the bulk of biological diversity in tropical forests is in the invertebrates, particularly the arthropods, and that is the source, as you heard last night and again this morning, of much of the unknown about tropical biodiversity.

What we see happening in tropical forests is tremendous habitat loss. Even though there are other causes of loss of habitat and loss of species, the bulk of it is due to land-use changes -- conversion of forest to non-forest uses. The bulk of these clearings are associated with access. Roads enable colonists, hunters and others to get there and use those resources. New patches tend to be distal to the road access, and oftentimes the older areas are not abandoned for a return to forest. The preceding slide, showing the work of agricultural colonists, contrasts noticeably with the almost surgical insertion of small clearings in the matrix of forests through shifting cultivation. As you well know, at low population densities, shifting cultivation is an ecologically sound use of the landscape. In tropical America, the bulk of the forest is cut down to convert the land to pastures for beef cattle.

Oftentimes, the conversion of forest to non-forest use occurs on lands that are unsuitable for agriculture, even very extensive agriculture. This happens to be in the Dominican Republic after a hurricane -- with tremendous numbers of landslides, literally choking this small valley. And, where do those sediments go? They go into reservoirs if there are dams. If there is no reservoir, they go into the estuary, literally drowning the incredibly high biological productivity of estuaries, and perhaps even causing the demise of coral reefs due to the sediment loads.

Fire is also an important factor in what is happening to tropical forests. The burning of tropical landscapes -- particularly cut forests -- is believed to contribute 20% to 25% of the carbon dioxide released into the earth's atmosphere, contributing to the well-known greenhouse effect. Localized rainfall patterns generate up to 50% of the rainfall in Amazonia as moisture is recycled numerous times by the air masses moving from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes Mountains.

Another major problem facing tropical forests and their biodiversity is fragmentation. This is particularly true in regions and in countries that are forest-poor. In the Atlantic forest region of Brazil, very little biodiversity can survive in the little patches of forest that remain. Certainly, some of the megaherbivores and top predators that we've talked about over the last day and a half, simply no longer exist in those kinds of habitats. These habitats are even marginal for small guys, like the golden lion tamarin, that is dependent on forests.

Normally I would highlight the exciting areas and advances that are occurring with non-timber forest products, but I simply don't have time. Because timber is such a fundamental aspect of saving tropical forests outside of the traditional protected areas, I'm going to talk primarily about tropical timber and what is going on in the forest-rich countries.

Logging, particularly for high-quality timber like mahogany, is not a direct cause of deforestation; in fact, access to that timber is more detrimental to deforestation than the actual logging. Access not only allows hunters to get into those habitats, it also allows colonists to move in and cut down those forests. Conversion of forest to non-forest uses is usually inimical to conservation of biological diversity.

It is exciting to note the advances over the last 20 years in understanding how tropical forests rebuild after natural or human-caused disturbance. A fallen tree opens up a hole in the canopy, destroying part of the forest understory. These tree-fall gaps are kind of messy areas. Biologists didn't really work in them until recently, because it was hard to see your feet and some were afraid of snakes (myself included). But we overcame those fears, and learned that gaps are important foci for not only insects and other animals, but especially for the regeneration of shade-intolerant tree species. This is a view from a canopy walkway, illustrating from above, a large gap created by a huge tree fall. We know now that these gaps are very important for natural regeneration. Enhanced (i.e., human-created) gaps in Papua New Guinea promote excellent natural regeneration of the pioneer tree, Eucalyptus deglupta. Hundreds of species colonize and compete for light and nutrients in the natural openings in tropical forests.

I was involved in a sustainable tropical forestry project in the Central Selva region of Peru that simulated the natural tree fall regime by harvesting the forest in long, narrow strip cuts. By mimicking gap dynamics in strip cuts 30-40 m wide, we promoted excellent natural regeneration of hundreds of native tree species. This is six months after the strip was opened up; the next slide is a year and a half after harvesting that particular strip; and this slide is four years later. At first it looks like good understory in an undisturbed tropical forest, but there are no large trees present. The young trees are growing very rapidly and rebuilding the forest structure and complexity.

A sustainable forestry approach that shows considerable promise is community-based production forestry, using portable sawmills. In Papua New Guinea, they are called "walkabout sawmills" because, in theory, you can walk them about. They are rather large, but these guys are really strong, and they can move these around the forests to saw the logs right in the forest. That is far less damaging than the traditional use of heavy machinery to bring the logs to a sawmill.

Here is a simple portable sawmill taken right into the forest for operation on a moderate slope. Note the canopy gap created by felling the focal tree. Portable sawmills produce sawn wood, add value to the timber, and generate adequate, and in some cases better than adequate income for local communities to meet their legitimate needs and aspirations.

The community forestry model contrasts with the traditional approach of industrial logging using heavy machinery (e.g., bulldozers and skidders). Uncontrolled use of heavy machinery trashes the forest to get just a few logs, or a few cubic meters of wood out of the forests. What is fundamentally important to these efforts of integrating sustainable forestry and the conservation of biodiversity is really involving local people. Local communities and local people, whose forest resources we are dealing with, must have control over their lands and resources. We can provide technical advice and assistance, hopefully to sustain their tropical forests and biodiversity.

Coming back to the opportunities that I described at the beginning, especially for the forest-rich tropical countries, these natural resources are attracting tremendous attention from multinational or transnational timber companies. We see what has happened, for example, in the tropical Far East -- first in Malaysia, then Indonesia, more recently in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons; it is also happening in parts of the Congo basin, the Guyanas and in the Amazon basin. With precious few exceptions, these companies are simply uninterested and unwilling to commit to sustainable tropical forestry, in part because even the governments are looking for quick sources of revenues. We really need to see governments, international agencies, particularly lending agencies, collaborating to implement regulations that respect national as well as local peoples' traditional land claims and rights to resources and to promote sustainable uses of the forest resources. If we do not develop effective tropical forestry practices, there is very little chance that the unprotected forests will survive well into the next century. Thank you.

Francesca Grifo:

We have time for questions.

Audience Question:

You briefly mentioned the Atlantic forest of Brazil. I would just point out that in Brazil, which was your very top country, yes, the Amazon forest is the largest block and most of the remaining forest is in the Amazon. However, the Atlantic forest is much higher in terms of endemism. And to simply say, We are going to preserve 10% of our forest --if you do it all in the Amazon, and you forget all about the Atlantic forest, why, you are going to lose an awful lot. Whereas if you save even those small remnants of the Atlantic forest, you can destroy a lot more of the Amazon forest and still not lose nearly as much in the way of endemic species.

Gary Hartshorn:

Possibly. I hope all of you heard the statement, because I think it is particularly good one. It is contrasting the Atlantic forest versus the Amazon forest, and the much higher levels of endemism in the Atlantic forest. However, the bulk of the Atlantic forest has already been lost. It ranges now only between about 2% and 12%, depending on the state, as we saw last night in Stuart Pimm's presentation.

Audience Question: (inaudible)

Gary Hartshorn:

Of course, that needs to be saved. I totally agree with you and I tried to emphasize that I am talking about the forests that are unprotected -- particularly in the forest-rich countries. You are correct that it is a very different situation. In fact, the feature article a few years ago in the New York Times that contrasted the situation between the Pacific Northwest and the Amazon was a spurious comparison. It should have been contrasted with the Atlantic forests because of fragmentation, the small amount of old-growth forest remaining, and so forth.

Carlos Ramirez (CUNY student):

In the 1980s we were very concerned about timber harvesting, mostly in Central America, in Asia -- in Southeast Asia -- Georgia Pacific and all the big transnationals. And I think I take your point in terms of sustainable harvesting of trees. But then, yes, we worry about these big countries. But in Belize, right now, it is Malaysian companies that are destroying the forest. And in Costa Rica, which is the model for conservation, in the Atlantic coast it is banana plantations that are displacing the rainforests. So we are faced with different issues, yet the same destructive consequences. My question is: What is the status of the Costa Rican areas, where the banana plantations are displacing rainforest, as pointed out by John Van Der Meer in his book, Breakfast on Biodiversity?

Gary Hartshorn:

I started out trying to design sustainable forest-management systems in Costa Rica, but technically I was too late, because there was so little forest remaining, forests suitable for production forestry based on sustainable management principles outside of the protected areas. That is certainly the case in the Caribbean lowlands of northeastern Costa Rica. Yes, there are two major conservation areas --Tortuguero National Park and Barra del Colorado Wildlife Sanctuary -- but between those two areas, which are right on the extreme northeast corner of Costa Rica and the mountains of the Central Cordillera, most of the unprotected forest is gone. There really aren't even good patches -- by that I mean a thousand hectares and larger -- of old-growth forests that remain in those areas, because it is all gone to banana plantations.

It is frustrating with short times that one gets to give presentations, and not being able to talk about the example of Costa Rica, which has a world-class system of protected areas that are now national conservation areas. Through the late 1960s and much of the 1970s, Costa Rica had some of the highest rates of population growth and deforestation in the tropical world. On the one hand they are protecting the national parks and equivalent reserves, and on the other, you have essentially the destruction of all the forests that are not in those protected areas and reserves.

Francesca Grifo:

We'll take one more quick question.

Audience Question:

My question is quick, I hope. I'd like to hear what you know and what your feelings are about non-governmental sustainable harvesting certification programs, which I've read a little bit about in the last couple of years.

Gary Hartshorn:

I think the efforts to do green certification have potential, but they so far have not really made the kind of difference -- particularly in the marketplace -- such that the large companies have started to embrace, or look at getting independent certification of their operations. The companies that have embraced certification, as endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council, tend to be very small specialty companies. They feel that it might be helping them increase their market share, but it is not adding value; in other words, increasing the price of their sustainable produced products.

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