ATBC 2008 - News

The Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation

In 2009, the future of tropical rainforests, it is tomorrow

2009 will celebrate Darwin's birth and the publication of The Origin of species. Let's read again his concluding remarks : "The whole history of the world, [...], will hereafter be recognised as a mere fragment of time, compared with the ages which have elapsed since the first creature, the progenitor of innumerable extinct and living descendants, was created. In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. [...]. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." Thus, during the very last minutes, seconds of his history, Human Beings is now ready to destroy a majority of all 'creatures' and their natural habitats. During the past year, we repeatedly warned visitors about mining threats, deforestation, palm oil plantation, burning and consequences for both tropical forests and climate change. (read Mongabay.com). As an epilogue, Cochrane and Laurance published another paper about 'Synergisms among Fire, Land Use, and Climate Change in the Amazon' in AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. It is one more paper on the topic, but for what ? The audience is not listening, neither reading. Charles Darwin might conclude today that he will see open fields for far more important researches in the future, rather focusing on species extinction and his history. The French Agence Nationale de la Recherche indeed released this week a new call for a research program entitled "The 6th extinction". In 2009, the future of tropical rainforests, it is now tomorrow [Ref. Forget, P.-M. 2004. Tropical rain forests tomorrow: No future ? Tropinet (supplement to Biotropica 36) 15:1-3.]. pdf

Illegal goldmining at Brownsberg Natural Park, Suriname. (c) P.-M. Forget.