background

The future of tropical forests and their human inhabitants depends on the ways - wise or otherwise - in which resources are managed. Most of the world species live in forests. Although some of these creatures are not obvious to all, e.g. insects, fungi and lower life forms, they play a critical role: they notably recycle nutrients and enable our ecosystems to renew themselves. It is estimated that 73% of tropical forests will have been felled by the year 2100.

The rapid disappearance of tropical forest and their biodiversity involves a wide range of changes, well beyond the known crucial interactions between forest cover and climate.

Investigating deforestation impact and biodiversity preservation
UNESCO has conducted a wide range of studies, undertaken under its programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). Key publications focus on issues related to the management of tropical resources, e.g.:

• integrated conservation strategies
• tree seedlings
• reproductive ecology
• people and food
• slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazonian rain forest
• economic and ecological sustainability of rain forest management
• long-term monitoring of biological diversity
• the issues beyond deforestation

Exploring efficient integrated approaches of conservation
UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme co-ordinates a World Network of Biosphere Reserves, which includes several sites with rich tropical forest biodiversity. Within these biosphere reserves, a wide range of activities are undertaken, focusing on:

• conservation
• development activities targeting the well-being of people living in tropical forests
• research, monitoring, education, and information exchange

Africanizing tropical forest management, via ERAIFT a regional postgraduate school
Tropical forest management has to be able to juggle forest-based subsistence activities e.g. farming, hunting, fishing and gathering of firewood, with encroaching urbanization, demographic growth and the growing involvement of tropical forest resources in the global economy.

UNESCO launched a postgraduate training in tropical forest management in 1999 at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Named ERAIFT (École régionale post-universitaire d'aménagement et de gestion intégrés des forêts tropicales), the school trains some 30 specialists from francophone and lusophones countries in Africa each year, and has courses at Master (DESS) and PhD (doctorat) levels. The ERAIFT' DESS diploma is recognized by the CAMES (Conseil africain et malgache pour l'enseignement supérieur).

It is training a new generation of African specialists and decision-makers to apply the ecosystem approach in situ to forest management in Africa. The curriculum notably spans:

• integrated management of tropical forests
• collaborating with local communities
• improving conditions for local populations
• sustainable development

Great apes: a unique bridge to the natural world
Amongst other flagship species, great apes play a key role in maintaining the health and diversity of tropical forests, which people depend upon. UNESCO and UNEP have united with key international partners to address the imminent threat of extinction of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans, and is engaged in the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP). The first Intergovernmental Meeting on great apes and GRASP has adopted the "Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes" which is a high-level political statement on the future of the great apes.