Lessons for other tropical forest landscapes

Abstract

In recent decades, governments and the general public have grown increasingly alarmed at the declining state of the world's environment. These concerns were first highlighted internationally by the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972). Equally important was the Brundland Report Our Common Futute (Brundtland 1987), produced by the World Commission on Environment and Development, which argued eloquently that, without fundamental changes in practices and innovation, further economic development would continue to exhaust natural resources and severely harm the global environment. This report defined sustainable development as that which 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. This report also highlighted the striking inequity of economic progress and suggested that equity, growth and environmental maintenance are all simultaneously possible through enlightened technological and social change.