The book, Lessons from Amazonia: the ecology and conservation of a fragmented forest, published by Yale University Press and edited by Richard O. Bierregard, Jr., Claude Gascon, Thomas E. Lovejoy and Rita Mesquita, includes four chapters by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Bill Laurance. They are: "Deforestation and forest fragmentation in the Amazon" (with Gascon, Bierregaard and Judy Rankin-de Merona), "The hyper-diverse flora of the Central Amazon: An overview", "Fragmentation and plant communities: Synthesis and implications for landscape management" and "Principles of forest fragmentation and conservation in the Amazon" (with Bierregaard, Gascon, Julieta Benitez-Malvido, Philip M. Fearnside, Carlos R. Fonseca, Gislene Ganade, Jay R. Malcolm, Marlucia B. Martins, Scott Mori, Marcio Oliviera, Judy Rankin-de Merona, Aldicir Scariot, Wilson Spironello and Bruce Williamson).
The BDFFP is the only experimental study of forest fragments in the Amazon that includes baseline data taken before fragments were isolated from continuous forest.
Several of the authors of this volume will be present at a half day symposium on the Future of the Amazon at STRI in Panama City on January 29, 2002.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, with headquarters in Panama City, Panama, is one of the world's leading centers for basic research on the ecology, behavior and evolution of tropical organisms. http://www.stri.org.