PART I
Conservation Biology and Landscape
Ecology in the Tropics: A Framework
for Agroforestry Applications
This part of the book introduces some major concepts of conservation biol-
ogy and landscape ecology for application in tropical landscapes. Its intention
is to provide the necessary background knowledge in conservation science
with a focus on landscape-scale issues so that nonspecialist readers can easily
follow the discussions of the biodiversity effects of different types of agro-
forestry in later chapters. For readers who are familiar with the concepts, it
provides an update of recent progress in these fields.
Chapter 1 outlines the current threats to biodiversity in the tropics, includ-
ing habitat loss, fragmentation, overexploitation of ecosystems, and invasions
by exotic plant and animal species. It discusses different conservation strate-
gies and stresses the need for strategies comprising landscapes, regions, and
larger scales. It points to the role in local, regional, and global conservation
strategies that agroforestry can and cannot play: although protected areas and
conservation set-asides are the irreplaceable backbone of any sensible conser-
vation strategy, agroforestry can play an important supporting role by linking
and buffering reserves and by maintaining or reintroducing a modest level of
biodiversity in biologically degraded areas from which natural vegetation has
been lost through human land use.
Chapters 2 and 3 focus on landscape processes that could be influenced by
agroforestry practices. Chapter 2 discusses the demographic and genetic con-
sequences of fragmentation of natural ecosystems through human land use for
plant and animal populations and the key landscape features (area, edge,
matrix, and distance effects) that affect fragmented populations. It also
addresses the possibility of agroforestry land uses partially mitigating some of
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