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BioDiversity
BIODIVERSITY
E.O.Wilson, Editor
Frances M.Peter, Associate Editor
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
1988
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BioDiversity
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Ave, NW Washington, DC 20418
The National Academy of Sciences was chartered by Congress in 1863 as a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the furtherance of science and engineering for the public welfare. In 1916 the National Research Council was organized, enabling the Academy to draw upon the entire American scientific and technical community in the pursuit of its mandate to provide independent advice to the nation on critical scientific and technical questions.
The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 1846 in accordance with the will of the Englishman, James Smithson, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of America, “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The Smithsonian has since evolved into an institution devoted to public education, research and national service in the arts, sciences and history. This independent federal establishment is the world’s largest museum complex and is responsible for public and scholarly activities, exhibitions and research projects nationwide and overseas.
The National Forum on BioDiversity was developed by the Board on Basic Biology of the National Research Council’s Commission on Life Sciences and by the Smithsonian Institution’s Directorate of International Activities.
The views expressed in this book are solely those of the individual authors and are not necessarily the views of the National Academy of Sciences or of the Smithsonian Institution.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
National Forum on Biodiversity (1986: Washington, D.C.)
Biodiversity/Edward O.Wilson, editor, Frances M.Peter, associate editor,
p. cm.
“Papers from the National Forum on BioDiversity held September 21–25, 1986, in Washington, D.C., under the cosponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution.”
Includes index.
ISBN 0-309-03783-2. ISBN 0-309-03739-5 (pbk.)
1. Biological diversity conservation—Congresses. 2. Biological diversity—Congresses. I. Wilson, Edward Osborne, 1929–II. Peter, Frances M. III. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) IV. Smithsonian Institution. V. Title.
QH75.A1N32 1986
333.7’2–dc19
First Printing, March 1988
Second Printing, May 1988
Third Printing, October 1988
Fourth Printing, May 1989
Fifth Printing, September 1989
Sixth Printing, May 1990
Seventh Printing, November 1990
Eighth Printing, August 1991
Ninth Printing, March 1992
Tenth Printing, January 1993
Eleventh Printing, January 1994
Twelfth Printing, April 1995
Thirteenth Printing, October 1996
Fourteenth Printing, February 1999
Copyright © 1988 by the National Academy of Sciences
No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission from the publisher, except for the purposes of official use by the U.S. government.
Printed in the United States of America
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BioDiversity
The National Forum on BioDiversity, on which this book is based, was developed by the Board on Basic Biology of the National Research Council’s Commission on Life Sciences and by the Smithsonian Institution’s Directorate of International Activities.
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EDITOR’S FOREWORD
The diversity of life forms, so numerous that we have yet to identify most of them, is the greatest wonder of this planet. The biosphere is an intricate tapestry of interwoven life forms. Even the seemingly desolate arctic tundra is sustained by a complex interaction of many species of plants and animals, including the rich arrays of symbiotic lichens. The book before you offers an overall view of this biological diversity and carries the urgent warning that we are rapidly altering and destroying the environments that have fostered the diversity of life forms for more than a billion years.
The source of the book is the National Forum on BioDiversity, held in Washington, D.C., on September 21–24, 1986, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Institution. The forum was notable for its large size and immediately perceived impact on the public. It featured more than 60 leading biologists, economists, agricultural experts, philosophers, representatives of assistance and lending agencies, and other professionals. The lectures and panels were regularly attended by hundreds of people, many of whom participated in the discussions, and various aspects of the forum were reported widely in the press. On the final evening, a panel of six of the participants conducted a teleconference downlinked to an estimated audience of 5,000 to 10,000 at over 100 sites, most of them hosted by Sigma Xi chapters at universities and colleges in the United States and Canada.
The forum coincided with a noticeable rise in interest, among scientists and portions of the public, in matters related to biodiversity and the problems of international conservation. I believe that this increased attention, which was evident by 1980 and had steadily picked up momentum by the time of the forum, can be ascribed to two more or less independent developments. The first was the accumulation of enough data on deforestation, species extinction, and tropical biology to bring global problems into sharper focus and warrant broader public exposure. It is no coincidence that 1986 was also the year that the Society for Conservation Biology was founded. The second development was the growing awareness of the close linkage between the conservation of biodiversity and economic development. In the United States and other industrial countries, the two
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are often seen in opposition, with environmentalists and developers struggling for compromise in a zero-sum game. But in the developing nations, the opposite is true. Destruction of the natural environment is usually accompanied by short-term profits and then rapid local economic decline. In addition, the immense richness of tropical biodiversity is a largely untapped reservoir of new foods, pharmaceuticals, fibers, petroleum substitutes, and other products.
Because of this set of historical circumstances, this book, which contains papers from the forum, should prove widely useful. It provides an updating of many of the principal issues in conservation biology and resource management. It also documents a new alliance between scientific, governmental, and commercial forces—one that can be expected to reshape the international conservation movement for decades to come.
The National Forum on BioDiversity and thence this volume were made possible by the cooperative efforts of many people. The forum was conceived by Walter G.Rosen, Senior Program Officer in the Board on Basic Biology—a unit of the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences (NRC/NAS). Dr. Rosen represented the NRC/NAS throughout the planning stages of the project. Furthermore, he introduced the term biodiversity, which aptly represents, as well as any term can, the vast array of topics and perspectives covered during the Washington forum. Edward W.Bastian, Smithsonian Institution, mobilized and orchestrated the diverse resources of the Smithsonian in the effort. Drs. Rosen and Bastian were codirectors of the forum. Michael H.Robinson (Director of the National Zoological Park) served as chairman of the Program Committee, organized one of the forum panels, and served as general master of ceremonies. The remainder of the Program Committee consisted of William Jordan III, Thomas E.Lovejoy III, Harold A.Mooney, Stanwyn Shetler, and Michael E.Soulé.
The various panels of the forum were organized and chaired by F.William Burley, William Conway, Paul R.Ehrlich, Michael Hanemann, William Jordan III, Thomas E.Lovejoy III, Harold A.Mooney, James D.Nations, Peter H.Raven, Michael H.Robinson, Ira Rubinoff, and Michael E.Soulé. David Johnson at the New York Botanical Garden was very helpful in verifying some of the botanical terms used in this book. Helen Taylor and Kathy Marshall of the NRC staff and Anne Peret of the Smithsonian Institution assisted with the wide variety of arrangements necessary to the successful conduct of the forum. Linda Miller Poore, also of the NRC staff, entered this entire document on a word processer and was responsible for formatting and checking the many references. Richard E.Morris of the National Academy Press guided this book through production.
The National Forum on BioDiversity was supported by the National Research Council Fund and the Smithsonian Institution, with supplemental support from the Town Creek Foundation, the Armand G.Erpf Fund, and the World Wildlife Fund. The National Research Council Fund is a pool of private, discretionary, nonfederal funds that is used to support a program of Academy-initiated studies of national issues in which science and technology figure significantly. The NRC Fund consists of contributions from a consortium of private foundations including
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the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Charles E.Culpeper Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Alfred P.Sloan Foundation; the Academy Industry Program, which seeks annual contributions from companies that are concerned with the health of U.S. science and technology and with public policy issues with technological content; and the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering endowments. The publication of this volume was supported by the National Research Council Dissemination Fund, with supplemental support from the World Wildlife Fund. We are deeply grateful to all these organizations for making this project possible.
Finally, and far from least, Frances M.Peter marshalled the diverse contributions in the present volume and was essential to every step of the manuscript editing process. The cover for Biodiversity was derived from a forum poster designed by artist Robert Goldstrom.
E.O.WILSON
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CONTENTS
1
The Current State of Biological Diversity
E.O.Wilson
3
PART 1
CHALLENGES TO THE PRESERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY
2
The Loss of Diversity: Causes and Consequences
Paul R.Ehrlich
21
3
Tropical Forests and Their Species: Going, Going…?
Norman Myers
28
4
Ecological Diversity in Coastal Zones and Oceans
G.Carleton Ray
36
5
Diversity Crises in the Geological Past
David M.Raup
51
6
Estimating Reductions in the Diversity of Tropical Forest Species
Ariel E.Lugo
58
7
Challenges to Biological Diversity in Urban Areas
Dennis D.Murphy
71
PART 2
HUMAN DEPENDENCE ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
8
Deep Ecology Meets the Developing World
James D.Nations
79
9
Screening Plants for New Medicines
Norman R.Farnsworth
83
10
Serendipity in the Exploration of Biodiversity: What Good Are Weedy Tomatoes?
Hugh H.Iltis
98
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11
The Outlook for New Agricultural and Industrial Products from the Tropics
Mark J.Plotkin
106
PART 3
DIVERSITY AT RISK: TROPICAL FORESTS
12
Our Diminishing Tropical Forests
Peter H.Raven
119
13
The Tropical Forest Canopy: The Heart of Biotic Diversity
Terry L.Erwin
123
14
Tropical Dry Forests: The Most Endangered Major Tropical Ecosystem
Daniel H.Janzen
130
15
Deforestation and Indians in Brazilian Amazonia
Kenneth I.Taylor
138
16
Primate Diversity and the Tropical Forest: Case Studies from Brazil and Madagascar and the Importance of the Megadiversity Countries
Russell A.Mittermeier
145
PART 4
DIVERSITY AT RISK: THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
17
Lessons from Mediterranean-Climate Regions
Harold A.Mooney
157
18
Structural and Functional Diversity in Temperate Forests
Jerry F.Franklin
166
19
Diversity in and among Grasslands
Paul G.Risser
176
20
Diversity and Biological Invasions of Oceanic Islands
Peter M.Vitousek
181
PART 5
THE VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY
21
Economics and the Preservation of Biodiversity
W.Michael Hanemann
193
22
Commodity, Amenity, and Morality: The Limits of Quantification in Valuing Biodiversity
Bryan Norton
200
23
The Rise of the Global Exchange Economy and the Loss of Biological Diversity
Richard B.Norgaard
206
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24
Why Put a Value on Biodiversity?
David Ehrenfeld
212
25
What Mainstream Economists Have to Say About the Value of Biodiversity
Alan Randll
217
PART 6
HOW IS BIODIVERSITY MONITORED AND PROTECTED?
26
Monitoring Biological Diversity for Setting Priorities in Conservation
F.William Burley
227
27
Information Management for the Conservation of Biodiversity
Robert E.Jenkins, Jr.
231
28
Identifying and Protecting the Origins of Our Food Plants
J.Trevor Williams
240
29
Conserving and Monitoring Biotic Diversity: Some African Examples
Brian J.Huntley
248
PART 7
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: HOW CAN THEY HELP?
30
Can Technology Aid Species Preservation?
William Conway
263
31
Conservation of Biological Diversity in Botanical Gardens
Peter S.Ashton
269
32
Using Science and Technology to Reestablish Species Lost in Nature
Tom J.Cade
279
33
Intensive Technology in the Care of Ex Situ Populations of Vanishing Species
Ulysses S.Seal
289
34
Cryobiology, Embryo Transfer, and Artificial Insemination in Ex Situ Animal Conservation Programs
Betsy L.Dresser
296
PART 8
RESTORATION ECOLOGY: CAN WE RECOVER LOST GROUND?
35
Ecological Restoration: Reflections on a Half-Century of Experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum
William R.Jordan III
311
36
Restoring Diversity in Salt Marshes: Can We Do It?
Joy B.Zedler
317
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37
Restoration of Degraded Lands in the Amazon Basin
Christopher Uhl
326
38
Increasing Diversity by Restoring Damaged Ecosystems
John Cairns, Jr.
333
39
Restoring Diversity: The Search for a Social and Economic Context
John Todd
344
PART 9
ALTERNATIVES TO DESTRUCTION
40
Are There Alternatives to Destruction?
Michael H.Robinson
355
41
Agroecology and In Situ Conservation of Native Crop Diversity in the Third World
Miguel A.Altieri and Laura C.Merrick
361
42
Alternatives to Destruction: Research in Panama
Gilberto Ocana, Ira Rubinoff, Nicholas Smythe, and Dagmar Werner
370
43
Biological Engineering for Sustainable Biomass Production
Sinyan Shen
377
PART 10
POLICIES TO PROTECT DIVERSITY
44
Preserving Biological Diversity in the Tropical Forests of the Asian Region
John Spears
393
45
The Tropical Forestry Action Plan: Recent Progress and New Initiatives
F.William Burley
403
46
International Development and the Protection of Biological Diversity
Nyle C.Brady
409
PART 11
PRESENT PROBLEMS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
47
Diverse Considerations
Thomas E.Lovejoy
421
48
The Conservation of Biodiversity in Latin America: A Perspective
Mario A.Ramos
428
49
A Major New Opportunity to Finance the Preservation of Biodiversity
Robert J.A.Goodland
437
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50
And Today We’re Going To Talk About Biodiversity…That’s Right, Biodiversity
Lester R.Brown
446
51
The Effect of Global Climatic Change on Natural Communities
Robert L.Peters II
450
PART 12
WAYS OF SEEING THE BIOSPHERE
52
Mind in the Biosphere; Mind of the Biosphere
Michael E.Soulé
465
53
A Mammal Gallery: Five Word Pictures and Three Poems
Michael McClure
470
54
Cold Water Spirit
Larry Littlebird
476
55
A Christian View of Biodiversity
John B.Cobb, Jr.
481
56
The Earth as a Living Organism
James E.Lovelock
486
PART 13
EPILOGUE
57
Epilogue
David Challinor
493
Index
497
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