Will concern for biodiversity spell doom to tropical forest management?

Arguments against active tropical forest management are analyzed in light o f available data and new research that shows tropical forests to be more re silient after disturbances than previously thought. Tropical forest managem ent involves a diverse array of human activity embedded in a complex social and natural environment. Within this milieu, forest structure and composit ion adjust to change and reflect the human and natural economy of regions. Critics of active forest management overestimate problems and underestimate human capacity to solve them. They isolate parts of a complex issue, i.e. the biodiversity component of tropical forest management, to generalize abo ut the negatives of logging. This view of the tropics is consistent with pa st treatment of tropical issues by those that evaluate the situation from a non-tropical perspective. The literature reveals that conservation of biod iversity can be compatible with measured use of tropical forests. However, the conservation of biodiversity could be hurt should society not approach the tropical forestry issue holistically and act on misinformation. Active forest management is the means towards the goal of conservation and the bes t available way to simultaneously address human needs and conservation of b iodiversity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.