Tropical forests are teeming with life and intricate ecological processes unparalleled anywhere on Earth. The vast tree canopies and ancient soils play a key role in worldwide climate and nutrient dynamics. Tropical forests are critical to the very survival of life on Earth. Between 1980 and 2000, 21 percent of tropical forests were destroyed. Much of the information needed to conserve, restore, and manage these ecosystems remains unknown. This calls for new knowledge and information about tropical ecosystems have taken on greater urgency. This led tropical biologists, conservationists, ecologists, and social scientists to began to assess the expanding scope of their professions. Tropical biologists started this process in 2000, exploring the changes needed in the priorities and practice of their field. The report “Beyond Paradise: Meeting the Challenges of Tropical Biology in the 21st Century” provides guidelines that enable tropical biologists to move beyond the current vision of protecting an undisturbed paradise. The process by which this document was created and more in-depth recommendations are available in the 2004 article “Beyond Paradise—Meeting the Challenges in Tropical Biology in the 21st Century” published in Biotropica by Bawa et al.
This document was prepared with the support of The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, The National Science Foundation, and The British Ecological Society.
