By:
Chuck Woods (352) 392-1773 x 281Source(s):
Daniel Zarin zarin@ufl.edu, 352-846-1247
Susan Jacobson jacobsons@wec.ufl.edu, 352-846-0562
Marianne Schmink schmink@tcd.ufl.edu, 352-392-0375 ext 827
Francis Putz fep@botany.ufl.edu, 352-392-1486
GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Finding the right balance between conserving Latin America’s tropical forests and using them for economic development is the goal of a new University of Florida graduate research and training program.
“The traditional starting point for conserving tropical forests has been the creation of parks that protect them from people,” said Daniel Zarin, an associate professor of tropical forestry with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “Parks are a critical cornerstone for conservation, but parks alone will not suffice.
“In developing countries with rapidly growing populations, the pressure to use tropical forests for economic purposes is enormous, and that’s why the need for the new interdisciplinary research and training program is so great,” he said. “There’s a growing need for trained professionals in international forestry and sustainable development who can solve real-world problems.”
Zarin, who directs the Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, said it includes students and faculty in UF’s colleges of agricultural and life sciences, liberal arts and sciences, and engineering. He said tropical forests in Brazil, Belize, Bolivia, Guatemala and Mexico are the main focus of the five-year program, which is supported by a $2.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant is administered by UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation.
In July, UF also received a $60,000 supplemental NSF grant to teach a course in Brazil on forest policy in the Amazon. The course, presented in Portuguese, will be offered in cooperation with two Brazilian universities.
Zarin said NSF awarded the grants to UF because of its strong programs in tropical ecology and tropical conservation and development. Officially known as the Working Forests in the Tropics Program, the UF research and training effort is linked to more than 20 cooperating institutions in Latin America, including universities, government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
“While the term ‘working forests’ is complex and has multiple meanings, it describes naturally regenerated wooded areas that are being used for economic purposes,” Zarin said. “Some forests are valued for their wood while others are valued for other forest products, or for watershed protection, biodiversity conservation or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
Zarin said the three main goals of the UF research and education program are to compare the tradeoffs between different economic and conservation options; to learn how social, economic, political and environmental issues affect economic development and conservation; and to determine how local communities, regional governments, international agencies, philanthropic foundations and the private sector can best intervene to improve forest management and conservation in the tropical forests of Latin America.
“The conventional logging common in most tropical forests is often cited for its destructive impacts such as loss of biodiversity, decline of wildlife populations, increased erosion and fire susceptibility,” said Francis Putz, a UF professor of botany and a member of the program’s executive committee. “This type of logging violates the principle of management for sustained timber yields, which allows forests to produce a continuous volume of commercially harvestable timber.”
Putz said another alternative to conventional logging is reduced-impact logging, which is intended to produce greater financial returns without heavy damage to forest ecosystems.
Other options include management for non-timber forest products. Brazil nuts, palm fruits and natural latex are among the more commonly harvested species in Latin America’s tropical forests, said Karen Kainer, an assistant professor of tropical forestry and member of the program’s executive committee. Kainer also has an appointment in UF’s Center for Latin American Studies.
The key to evaluating the sustainability of any forest use is its impact on what ecologists refer to as ecosystem services, which includes the forest’s role in protecting the watershed, conserving biodiversity and sequestering carbon dioxide. Zarin said the economic value of these services is now being recognized, and they’re being bought and sold in some projects in the region.
UF graduate students will have an opportunity to work in different tropical forest regions, including the Amazon in Brazil, lowland areas in Bolivia and the Maya Forest in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico, he said.
“Like other UF doctoral programs, this one requires technical proficiency in a scientific discipline,” Zarin said. “And the cross-disciplinary components of the program will provide the broader perspective generally lacking in doctoral programs.”
UF academic units participating in the Working Forests in the Tropics Program include anthropology, botany, civil and coastal engineering, environmental engineering, forest resources and conservation, geography, Latin American studies, law, natural resources and the environment, sociology, soil and water science, wildlife ecology and conservation, and zoology. Other UF faculty on the program’s executive committee include Marianne Schmink, a professor of Latin American studies; Susan Jacobson, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation; and Richard Stepp, an assistant professor of anthropology. More than 20 other UF faculty are affiliated with the program.
Schmink said students conducting research in the program must be familiar with a variety of disciplines and have skills ranging from language proficiency to cultural sensitivity.
“The graduate program will provide hands-on training and experience in communication, ethics, teamwork and cross-cultural skills that are sorely needed by scholars and practitioners working in tropical forest regions,” she said.
Jacobson said interdisciplinary programs are more difficult to evaluate than single-discipline programs. The real success of the program will depend on the ability of graduates to work effectively in tropical regions and solve difficult problems.
“We anticipate that graduates of the program will be attractive employees for government and other agencies as well as academic institutions and the private sector,” she said.
Other measures of the program’s success will include refereed scientific publications produced by students and faculty in collaboration with Latin American colleagues, along with extension publications and workshops in regions hosting the research program. The Working Forests in the Tropics Program Web site will provide a global network for communication: http://www.tropicalforests.ufl.edu/wft.
Doctoral fellowships have been awarded to seven UF graduate students who will enter the program this year. Five current doctoral students were awarded IGERT summer research grants in 2003 to support their fieldwork in Latin America. January 2004 is the fellowship application deadline for students who want to enter the program next August; 2004 summer research grant applications will be due in February.
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