The tropics and subtropics are home to about 75% of the global human population. Cultural, economic, and political circumstances vary enormously across this vast geography of some 170 countries and territories. The regions not only harbor the world's poorest countries but their human populations are growing disproportionally faster than in temperate zones. Some countries are developing rapidly -- Brazil, China, India, and Mexico being obvious examples, while others still remain in the poverty trap. This region contains an astonishing proportion of global biodiversity; some 90% of plant and animal species by some measures. Its contribution to human well-being is astounding. It was the birthplace for our species; and it hosts a myriad of plant and animal species which products feed us, keep us healthy, and supply us with a variety of material goods. The tropics and subtropics are also a natural laboratory where some of humanity's most important scientific discoveries have been made. Such biodiversity has enormous implications for research priorities, capacity building, and policy to address the challenges of conserving this region. Tropical Conservation: Perspectives on Local and Global Priorities drew the majority of its contributors from this growing pool of scientists and practitioners working in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It introduces important conservation concepts and illustrates their application as the authors directly capture real world experiences in their home countries in preventing biodiversity loss and sustaining ecological health. Today, no part of the world can be viewed in isolation, and we further codify and integrate a range of approaches for addressing global threats to nature and environmental sustainability, including climate change and emerging diseases. Five sections structure the major themes.

The specific objective of these Voluntary Guidelines is to promote the sustainable management of public production natural forests in tropical countries through forest concessions, thereby fulfilling their potential contribution to the achievement of Agenda 2030. Forest concession regimes are treated here as forest policy instruments, and should be aligned with the sustainable forest management objectives agreed by countries in the UNFF. The current Guidelines intend to serve as guidance for making forest concessions an effective economic instrument of forest policy in the context of the 2030 Agenda, transforming them into an instrument capable of delivering sustainable forest management in all its dimensions, and generating socio-economic benefits to relevant stakeholders.

This book brings together information on harvest methods, system productivity, and methods for conducting safe, efficient, and environmentally acceptable operations in tropical forests. It highlights the challenges of harvest operations in the tropics, includes techniques that have been shown to be successful, and discusses newer technologies. Numerical examples are provided to provide clarity for interpreting graphs, procedures, and formulas.

Numerous economic, sociocultural, and health problems continue to impede the optimal progress of many millions of people in the developing countries in tropical and other geographic regions of the world. Thus, tropical medicine has many aspects including parasitology, bacteriology, and virology, environmental sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, pharmacology, immunology, agriculture, eco nomics, political science, anthropology, sociology, and behavioral sciences. Like the mythical Proteus, the individual dealing with tropical medicine must assume many roles. There is a growing recognition of the unique problems of the tropical countries. This has led to concerted efforts by many international agencies to attempt to obtain new tools to control many of the tropical diseases that have defied previous attempts at large-scale control. The involvement of the world's leading scientists and institutions as well as the best talents and resources of the developing countries themselves has inspired considerable research in tropical medicine with an inevitable exponential growth in publications. The new series Critical Reviews in Tropical Medicine is being launched to provide topical state of-the-art critiques of selected subjects in this burgeoning field. Authored by active investigators in their chosen topics, these reviews should be useful for all health professionals, social scientists, and administrators involved in planning interventions, both preventive and therapeutic, in developing regions of the world. Contributions included in Volume 1 span parasitology, infectious disease, immunology, gastroenterology, liver disease, and nutrition.

In the tropics farmers have to work from a limited resource base which does not lend itself to highly productive crop and animal yields. The principles of farm management economics and the application of farm management analysis and planning can help small farmers in the tropics to produce 'a bit more' from their lots.