ved to death : Are tropical forests being overprotected from people?

There are plans to double the area of strictly protected tropical forest. This article suggests that the siting and management of such reserves are based on models of conservation inappropriate to developing countries, and that an ignorance of past and present tropical land use will prevent reserves achieving their major objective of conserving useful biodiversity. Strict preservation could also destroy the indigenous knowledge needed for ecosystem management. Multipurpose management and continued human use of tropical forests is a more effective and sustainable conservation policy for tropical developing countries. Rural communities should be actively and physically involved in the future productive management of tropical forests, rather than being induced or pressured into abandoning their forest heritage.