Navjot S. Sodhi & Luke Gibson 
Conservation Biology 
Voices from the Tropics

The late Navjot Sodhi conceived this book as a way of bringing
to the forefront of our conservation planning for the tropics the
views of people who were actually working and living there.
In its 31 chapters, 55 authors present their views on the
conservation problems they face and how they deal with
them.

Effective long term conservation in the tropics requires the full
participation of local people, organizations and governments. The
human population of tropical countries is expected to grow by more
than 2.5 billion people over the next several decades, with
expectations of increased consumption levels growing even more
rapidly than population levels; clearly there will be a need for
more trained conservationists and biologists. Significant
levels of local involvement are essential to conservation success,
with the rights of local people fully recognized, protected and
fostered by governmental and international assistance.
Overarching conservation plans are necessary, but cannot in
themselves lead to success.

The individual experiences presented in the pages of this book will
provide useful models that may serve to build better and more
sustainable lives for the people who live in the tropics and lead
to the continued survival of as many species and functioning
ecosystems as possible.

About the author

Navjot Sodhi (1962-2011): Based at the National
University of Singapore, Navjot was one of the great minds of
conservation biology. A native of the Punjab, India, he graduated
from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and then moved to an
incredible fruitful 15 years documenting rain forest loss and
degradation in Southeast Asia and its effects on populations of
animals and plants. He was best known as a conservationist, someone
who cared passionately about these rich lands and the people who
live in the region, and striving, with a large group of colleagues
and students, to devise ways to improve the sustainability of the
area while pressures on the forest mounted rapidly. Navjot
suggested the idea of this book to Peter Raven because he was so
keenly aware of the differences between attitudes and actions in
conservation that predominate in rich and poor countries. He
intended to share the lessons that conservation practitioners were
learning in the countries where they live with the world.
Shortly before Navjot died, he asked his student Luke Gibson to
step up and share the editorial responsibility with Peter Raven,
and this book is the result. We believe that he would have liked
this book with its varied contents very much – he always
placed application in front of theory, deeply wanting to preserve
the world’s biological richness and to support the very poor
among us. We miss him greatly, and are pleased to present
here his last efforts in a wonderfully productive life.

Luke Gibson: At the National University of Singapore,
Luke Gibson is studying tropical forest loss in Southeast Asia and
its impact on biodiversity. For his Ph D, he is recording
extinctions of small mammal species from small forest fragments in
Chiew Larn reservoir, Thailand, and the persistence – or
decline – of other mammalian ungulates and carnivores in the
lowland dipterocarp forest surrounding the reservoir. Before moving
to Southeast Asia, he received his Bachelor’s degree from
Princeton University and his Master’s degree from the
University of California, San Diego.

Peter Raven: Over the past 50 years, Peter Raven has
become an influential voice in systematics, ecology and evolution
worldwide. He served as President of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science and other organizations, Home Secretary
of the US National Academy of Sciences, and is a member of a number
of other academies worldwide. During his 39-year tenure as
President of the Missouri Botanical Garden he guided the Garden to
a position of global leadership in conservation, with centers of
activity in the tropics of Latin America, Africa and Asia. He is
co-author of the leading textbook in botany, The Biology of
Plants, and has coauthored leading texts in biology and the
environment. With Paul Ehrlich, he originated the important concept
of coevolution.