The late Navjot Sodhi conceived this book as a way of bringing to the forefront of our conservation planning for the tropics the views of people who were actually working and living there.  In its 31 chapters, 55 authors present their views on the conservation problems they face and how they deal with them. 

 

Effective long term conservation in the tropics requires the full participation of local people, organizations and governments. The human population of tropical countries is expected to grow by more than 2.5 billion people over the next several decades, with expectations of increased consumption levels growing even more rapidly than population levels; clearly there will be a need for more trained conservationists and biologists.  Significant levels of local involvement are essential to conservation success, with the rights of local people fully recognized, protected and fostered by governmental and international assistance.  Overarching conservation plans are necessary, but cannot in themselves lead to success.   

 

The individual experiences presented in the pages of this book will provide useful models that may serve to build better and more sustainable lives for the people who live in the tropics and lead to the continued survival of as many species and functioning ecosystems as possible.

Navjot Sodhi (1962-2011): Based at the National University of Singapore, Navjot was one of the great minds of conservation biology. A native of the Punjab, India, he graduated from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and then moved to an incredible fruitful 15 years documenting rain forest loss and degradation in Southeast Asia and its effects on populations of animals and plants. He was best known as a conservationist, someone who cared passionately about these rich lands and the people who live in the region, and striving, with a large group of colleagues and students, to devise ways to improve the sustainability of the area while pressures on the forest mounted rapidly. Navjot suggested the idea of this book to Peter Raven because he was so keenly aware of the differences between attitudes and actions in conservation that predominate in rich and poor countries.  He intended to share the lessons that conservation practitioners were learning in the countries where they live with the world.  Shortly before Navjot died, he asked his student Luke Gibson to step up and share the editorial responsibility with Peter Raven, and this book is the result. We believe that he would have liked this book with its varied contents very much – he always placed application in front of theory, deeply wanting to preserve the world’s biological richness and to support the very poor among us.  We miss him greatly, and are pleased to present here his last efforts in a wonderfully productive life.

 

Luke Gibson: At the National University of Singapore, Luke Gibson is studying tropical forest loss in Southeast Asia and its impact on biodiversity. For his PhD, he is recording extinctions of small mammal species from small forest fragments in Chiew Larn reservoir, Thailand, and the persistence – or decline – of other mammalian ungulates and carnivores in the lowland dipterocarp forest surrounding the reservoir. Before moving to Southeast Asia, he received his Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his Master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego.

 

Peter Raven: Over the past 50 years, Peter Raven has become an influential voice in systematics, ecology and evolution worldwide. He served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and other organizations, Home Secretary of the US National Academy of Sciences, and is a member of a number of other academies worldwide. During his 39-year tenure as President of the Missouri Botanical Garden he guided the Garden to a position of global leadership in conservation, with centers of activity in the tropics of Latin America, Africa and Asia. He is co-author of the leading textbook in botany, The Biology of Plants, and has coauthored leading texts in biology and the environment. With Paul Ehrlich, he originated the important concept of coevolution.