Smithsonian hosts tropical extinction debate in Panama

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute will host the workshop "Debating the Tropical Extinction Crisis" in Panama from 21-23 August, 2008.

The event is sponsored by the Institute, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Science Committee of the Smithsonian National Board, and the Smithsonian Office of the Undersecretary for Science.

Some scientists claim that up to half of all species on earth may disappear during our lifetimes. Others dispute this view. Opening with a public symposium at the Institute's Earl S. Tupper Research and Conference Center in Panama City on 21 August, a group of world-class tropical biologists will debate the fate of tropical species. A draft agenda follows. Videotapes of the 20-minute presentations will be posted on the Institute's web page beginning the following day.

Workshop participants will critically evaluate both the most crucial pan-tropical threats to biodiversity and strategies for reducing or mitigating these threats.

Workshop organizers William Laurance and S. Joseph Wright, both staff scientists at the Institute, expect to edit 6-8 papers on key themes from the workshop for publication in the journal Conservation Biology and produce 1-2 synthetic papers for publication in high-profile science journals.

Workshop participants will also contribute content for a public debate on the tropical extinction crisis at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. scheduled for 12 January 2009.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. For more information, visit www.stri.org.

Draft Agenda: Debating the Tropical Extinction Crisis

Public Symposium
21 August, 2008
Earl S. Tupper Research and Conference Center
Panama City, Panama

Setting the stage
8:30 am Welcome: William Laurance & S. Joseph Wright, staff scientists, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and conference organizers.
8:50 am William Laurance, "Background to the tropical extinction debate"
9:10 am S. Joseph Wright, "Habitat loss, climate change, and the tropical forest biodiversity crisis"
9:30 am Thomas Brooks, Senior Director of the Conservation Synthesis Department, Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, "Measuring the tropical forest extinction crisis"
9:50 am Ariel Lugo, Director, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, "Calling attention to positive terms in the species extinction equation"
10:10 am Questions and discussion
10:30 am Coffee break

Land-use change and biodiversity
11:00 am Greg Asner, Faculty Scientist, Carnegie Airborne Observatory, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution and Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Regional Ecological Studies, School of Earth Sciences, Stanford University, "Recent trends in logging and forest disturbance in Latin America and the Caribbean"
11:20 am Ruth DeFries, professor in the Department of Geography and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, "Urbanization and deforestation in the humid tropics: Towards a tropical-forest transition?"
11:40 pm Mitch Aide, Associate Professor, Biology, University of Puerto Rico, "The effects of a globalized world on land-use patterns in Latin America and the Caribbean"
12:00 pm Thomas Rudel, Director of Graduate Program in Sociology, Professor, Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology, Graduate Faculties of Sociology and Geography, Rutgers University, "Does agricultural intensification spare forests from destruction? Recent evidence"
12:20 pm Questions and discussion
12:40 pm Lunch

Other threats to biodiversity
1:40 pm Stephen Williams, Associate Professor, Director of Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, James Cook University, "Climate change and predicting extinction in Australian rainforests"
2:00 pm Andrew Cunningham, Head of Wildlife Epidemiology, Institute of Zoology, Cambridge University, "Parasites and extinction risk"
2:20 pm Elizabeth Bennett, Wildlife Conservation Society, "The other face of globalization: Losing our most spectacular wildlife to trade"
2:40 pm David Wilkie, Wildlife Conservation Society, "Driving rare species to extinction: The role of multispecies hunts, optimal foraging and economics"
3:00 pm Carlos Peres, Reader, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, "Biodiversity erosion across scales of disturbance in Amazonian forests"
3:20 pm Questions and discussion
3:40 pm Coffee break

Biodiversity in modified lands and other topics
4:00 pm Robin Chazdon, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, "Reassembly of tree floristic composition on secondary forests of NE Costa Rica"
4:20 pm David Lamb, Professor, University of Queensland, "Tropical biodiversity conservation via forest restoration?"
4:40 pm Jonathan Coddington, Senior Scientist in Entomology and former chair of the departments of Entomology, Zoology and Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, "Estimating biodiversity from local to phylogenetic scales"
5:00 pm Scott Miller, Program Officer, Office of the Undersecretary for Science, Smithsonian Institution, "Insect biogeography in tropical forests and implications for biodiversity conservation"
5:20 pm Nigel Stork, Professor and Chief Executive Officer, Rainforest Cooperative Research, James Cook University, "Are we losing 100 species a day and if not why not?"
5:40 pm Doug Sheil, Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia, "On reconciling conservation with other demands"
6:00 pm End of symposium