The conservation of diversity in forest trees

Abstract

Deforestation, pollution, and climatic change threaten forest diversity all over the world. And because forests are the habitats for diverse organisms, the threat is extended to all the flora and fauna associated with forests, not only forest trees. In a worst case scenario, if the tropical forest in Latin America was reduced to the areas now set aside in parks and reserves, 66% of the world's plant species would go extinct, along with 69% of the birds and correspondingly high proportions of the other fauna (Myers 1984).

Citation

Ledig, F. Thomas. 1988. The conservation of diversity in forest trees. Bio Science38(7):471-479