Bridging the Gap between ScientificResearch and Tropical Forest Restoration:A Multifaceted Research, Conservation,Education, and Outreach Program inSouthern Costa Rica

摘要

in the last century, well over half the tropical forest inCentral America has been cleared, creating a fragmentedagricultural mosaic within which small forest remnantsare embedded. However, changes in agricultural marketsand incentives, in addition to land degradation, have led to agricultural land abandonment, providing the oppor-tunity for tropical forest recovery and restoration. Overthe decades, a few well-known biological field stations inCentral America (for example, La Selva, Barro ColoradoIsland, and Las Cruces) have hosted scientists, primar-ily from Europe and the United States, who have pro-duced thousands of publications on rainforest ecologyand, increasingly, conservation and restoration practice.However, the question remains how to better facilitatethe exchange of information between scientists and localcommunities to support restoration practice in the region.