Publisher's Synopsis
Most animal and plant species inhabit tropical forests. Hence the interest (not without some controversy) in the effects of tropical forest clearance on biological diversity.;IUCN, whose members include most of the world's major conservation organizations, convened a workshop to assess the status of scientific knowledge about forest destruction and its effects on the biological world. This publication is the result.;The book provides a conservationist's perception of how fast tropical forests are being lost and what the consequences are for biological diversity. It compares extinction rate predictions derived from models of fragmentation of habitats and observed directly in lightly-logged and unlogged forests.;It should be of major interest not only to tropical biologists but to all conservation biologists.