In order to develop effective strategies to reduce loss of biodiversity, policy-makers need reliable information on how it is distributed. In Amazonia the spatial distribution of biodiversity is extremely poorly understood so it is hard to evaluate and monitor the cost-effectiveness of existing conservation efforts. There are associated needs to compare the effectiveness of biodiversity inventory techniques and to gain comparable data using standardised methods.

In order to promote sustainable use, we need to understand the impacts of different production systems on forests from both the global perspective (e.g. impacts on biodiversity, representing future option value) and the local perspective (socio-economic impacts on forest users - including value obtained, equity within communities, and long-term sustainability). There is an associated need to develop new generic approaches to biodiversity assessment that integrate biological and social concerns.

The project will address reducing loss of biodiversity by mapping biodiversity within a region already known to be highly diverse (>1000 tree species) and threatened (population growth rate >2%yr, mineral prospecting and mining), thereby showing priority sites for conservation and making conservation more cost-effective. It will address the problem in the wider tropical context by comparing the effectiveness of different methods for assessing forest biodiversity.

The project will address sustainable use regionally, by sampling biodiversity, revealing sustainable harvest intensities, and by assessing local (indigenous and immigrant) concerns, and developing a broad picture of land-use suitabilities. It will address the problem in the wider tropical context by developing an innovative and generic approach for allowing appraisal of floral diversity, land potential, and conservation options in tropical forests. The project will contribute to resolving these problems during the time-scale of the project itself and beyond through developing generic approaches and by strengthening the capacity of appropriate national institutions.

Loss of biodiversity reduced; conservation and sustainable use improved.

Effectiveness of assessment, valuation management, conservation and sustainable use of environmental and natural resources increased through the development and application of improved methodologies.

Develop, test, and disseminate the methodology for an integrated, multidisciplinary, generic approach to conserving, assessing, and using forest biodiversity.

• A generic, integrated methodology for assessing biodiversity and human impacts in tropical forests developed and promoted.
• The methodology applied in south-east Amazonian Peru so that: