Short-Term Dynamics of a Neotropical Forest: Why Ecological Research Matters to Tropical Conservation and Management

Arguments that ecolocial research on species-rich tropical forests is too little, too late, an irrelevancy, and a luxury we can ill afford when time is running out to save tropical forests are wrong. Focused basic and applied ecological research has a vital and cost-effective role to play in tropical forest conservation and management. Sustainable management of natural tropical forests is not possible without a better holistic understanding of how such forests actually work ecologically and interact with humans. Because time is short, however, we must learn "on-the-job" by conducting research as we implement management plans. We base our argument on experience with a large-scale study of the tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. In the space of 5 years, it was possible to collect essential silvics data on stocking levels, growth, yield, survival rates, and microhabitat requirements of a large fraction of the BCI tree community of more than 300 native species. We conclude that a program of comparable studies of representative natural and managed tropical forests at key sites throughout the tropics would rapidly improve the global fund of knowledge on which to base better decisions for the conservation and management of tropical forests. International agencies and foundations should increase their support of mission-oriented, holistic research on the community ecology of tropical forests far beyond the present emphasis on basic inventories of biodiversity. On one point there is no argument: tropical forests are indeed in big trouble.