Biodiversity and ecosystem services in tropical forests: recent findings and implications for sustainable forest management (SFM)

Publication date: 26/10/2020
Extent: 20 pages

Contributions by: Beth A. Kaplin, University of Rwanda, Rwanda and University of Massachusetts-Boston, USA

Chapter synopsis: Tropical forests are some of the biologically richest areas on Earth. The biodiversity in tropical forests, specifically species and functional groups and the ecological processes resulting from species behaviors and interactions provide important ecosystem services. These ecosystem services are valuable locally as well as regionally and globally. It is biodiversity that provisions ecosystem services and at the same time supports or maintains tropical forest processes which then provide other ecosystem services. An understanding of these interrelationships should be valuable to support sustainable forest management approaches. This chapter reviews research on species and functional groups that provide services in tropical forests and highlights areas in need of more research. An understanding of the linkages between tropical forests and surrounding agricultural landscapes may provide interesting ways to frame SFM goals. This needs to be in the context of the state of urgency regarding the rapid loss and transformation of tropical forests occurring today.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2020.0074.15