THE TROPICS - ENVIRONMENTS AND HUMAN IMPACTS UNDERSTOOD AND REINTERPRETED

In the 1950s, few people had travelled widely through different parts of the tropics and interpretations on tropical landforms, soils, veget ation and climate largely rested on impressions gained from residence or long sojourns in particular tropical countries. Most academic geogr aphy on the tropics was then written by expatriates and lacked the per spective gained from long experience of tropical regions. Particular p roblems of understanding arose as people attempted to extrapolate from one part of the tropics to another. Since then, understanding has adv anced enormously, largely through the efforts of tropical scientists w orking in their own institutions and through the greater technological ability to study tropical lands both remotely and through easier fiel d access. The establishment of a number of field stations, aimed prima rily at the biological sciences, but also facilitating the work of geo graphers, has been a major stimulus to this effort. Concerns over prac tical issues, particularly local development and global climatic chang e have prompted new avenues of research, many of which have been assis ted by the great increase in data collection in tropical countries. Fo r the future, South-South dialogue between tropical Physical geographe rs is needed to improve their ability to ask meaningful questions so t hat they can contribute to teach the rest of their discipline more abo ut serious applied and applicable geography.