|
STATEMENT
FROM THE TROPICAL MONTANE CLOUD FORESTS
PLANNING
AND ADVISORY WORKSHOP
July
1998, WCMC, Cambridge UK
This workshop
emphasises the special hydrological values and the high biological
endemism of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests (TMCF) and their ecosystem
support services, economic benefits and cultural significance. These
forests are often the only remaining virtually undisturbed ecosystems
in montane regions around the world, but they face the threats that
are destroying other tropical forests worldwide. There is an urgent
need to promote their conservation and to study their function and
richness before it is too late.
There is a need
for communication and interactions between those who research, manage
or use them and to develop a networking system to facilitate this.
There is insufficient public/political awareness of the status and
values of TMCF, and rectifying this is recognised by the workshop
to be a matter of highest priority.
In order to document
more precisely the values and importance of TMCF for decision makers,
managers, users and donors, increased and more integrated research
is urgent, both biophysical and socio-economic in nature. Management
or conservation of TMCF cannot be considered in isolation, and must
encompass the watersheds of which they are a part, including the physical
and social landscapes surrounding them. In this, a high level of community
involvement, through alliances and shared knowledge is essential.
In many tropical regions, cloud forests are part of the homeland and
traditional territory of indigenous groups to whom these are special
places, and we therefore call for all outside intervention, including
research, to respect these cultural values.
We applaud the
initial steps taken by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre to
conduct a global assessment of the location and status of TMCF and
urge that the resources be sought to further this essential work.
|
