Monash Publications No.49/GES
Monash Publications in Geography & Environmental Science: Number 49
Analogue Forestry: an introduction
by Ranil Senanayake and John Jack
Forests and other 'natural' areas have been subjected to increasing public scrutiny over the past 40 years. Much of this has been associated with a concern for loss of biological diversity, including ( more recently) the loss of cultural values of native peoples.
A challenge to emerge from the considerations of the operation of the Convention on Biological Diversity is the observation that over 99% of the biodiversity of a forest is contained within its non-tree component. While the ideal way of maintaining the original levels of forest biodiversity is in the scheduling and managing of forested land for conservation, there are relatively small resources available for the purchase or scheduling of protected areas. The establishment of protected areas and private reserves alone is not enough for conservation, due to their small area and the likelihood of conflict between conservation values and the human need for resources that are present within reserves.
The conservation of standing forest is a priority, but given present population and economic trends the degradation of biodiversity within the non-scheduled areas of forest will reach exponential rates unless directly addressed in the context of forest biodiversity conservation. For instance, one of the greatest unrecognised areas in tropical rainforest conservation and rehabilitation efforts is the loss of non-woody plant taxa and the subsequent loss of the organisms dependent on these microhabitats. Analogue Forestry is a response that seeks to address both the genetic and cultural issues of biological loss.