Between 1990 and 2000, 14.2 million ha per year of tropical forest were
deforested, with an additional 1 million ha per year converted to forest plan-
tations. Natural forest expansion over this time was 1 million ha per year, with
an additional 0.9 million ha per year afforested by humans as forest planta-
tions. This deforestation occurred differently on regional and local scales. For
instance, during this 10-year time period, the country of Burundi in Central
Africa lost 9 percent of its remaining forest per year. This significant percent-
age loss is of great importance to national policymakers in Burundi, but actual
deforestation rates of 15,000 ha per year were much lower than in other parts
of the world and therefore are less important from a global perspective. The
largest actual loss in Africa occurred in the Sudan, with 959,000 ha deforested
each year. Indonesia deforested a staggering 1,312,000 ha per year over this
time period (FAO 2001). If left unchecked, the clearing, burning, logging,
and fragmentation of forest will destroy most of the world’s tropical forests in
our lifetime. The planet’s forested areas have already decreased by almost 2 bil-
lion ha since the beginning of the agricultural revolution (Noble and Dirzo
1997). The impacts of this destruction on any geographic scale are not yet
fully understood. In addition to the release of CO 2 via biomass combustion
and microbial activity, soil erosion, and hydrological cycle disturbance, this
destruction also results in the extinction of numerous known populations and
species and the loss of undiscovered species, each with a unique history and
habits never to be known.
One important tool for mitigating tropical deforestation is the establish-
ment of tropical agroforested areas or protected parks. Parks are effective in
preventing deforestation and thereby protect biodiversity despite the fact that
many are underfunded and experience substantial land use pressure (Bruner et
al. 2001). Within the matrix surrounding tropical parks, other methods, such
as agroforestry, can be used to protect biodiversity and help alleviate the neg-
ative effects of deforestation and associated edge effects. By simulating to some
extent natural forest cover through the cultivation of tree species with agricul-
tural crops, agroforestry areas may serve as biodiversity corridors between pro-
tected areas and nonprotected remnants of natural vegetation while providing
sustainable crop and wood harvests.
The Tropical Biodiversity Crisis
Biodiversity is not simply a measure of the world’s species; rather, it also
encompasses genetic variability within and between populations, species’ evo-
lutionary histories, and other measures of the diversity of life. Biodiversity
patterns vary between regions. This variability results both from the present
ecology and past evolutionary history of species and from habitat type, habi-
tat availability, and physical qualities such as climatic conditions and geologi-
cal and hydrological patterns, all varying over space and time. The future
- Biodiversity Conservation in Deforested and Fragmented Tropical Landscapes 17