TROPICAL FORESTS AND FORESTRY

Tropical forest represents one of the two major plant formations of the tropics, the other being tropical savanna. Today the two formations cover roughly 40 per cent and 60 per cent of uncultivated tropical land surfaces, respectively; the propensity for forests to degrade to savannas under intense human activities (see Chapter 7) precludes any exact assignment of proportions under ‘natural’ conditions. Forests exist in each of the three geographical regions of the tropics: the Neotropics, Africa and the Asia-Pacific area (Figure 6.1). Among regions, forests often share many common structural traits and plant life forms, although few common species. Taxonomic similarities are found primarily at the level of genera and families, although even here differences between the regions exist. For example, tree species of the family Diptercarpaceae (dipterocarps) dominate the forests of South and South-East Asia, but are absent from other tropical forests.