ITTO/IUCN guidelines for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in tropical timber production forests

Abstract

Natural tropical forests are enormously important for the conservation of the world’s biological diversity. They contain, for example, a very large proportion of the world’s species of mammal, birds and amphibians, and are equally – if not more important for plants and invertebrates. Some of this diversity will be maintained in effectively managed protected areas, but these cover less than 10% of the global tropical forest estate.