Rainforest Live!

Objective and Goals of
The Center for Rainforest Studies

Center Objective
To develop environmentally sound, culturally acceptable and politically and economically feasible alternatives for the conservation and management of the unique Queensland rainforest.

Critical Environmental Issues
The need to balance ecology and economics is acutely felt in North Queensland which hosts Australia's remaining tropical rainforests. While many forests now have protected status, the country still struggles with the conflict between resource use and preservation and the fate of degraded lands. We will attempt to answer such questions as:

• What changes in wildlife laws, protected lands, zoning rules and land management practices would halt the slow demise of the cassowary locally?
• What combination of planting strategies and plot maintenance procedures yield the greatest reforestation success?
• Will forest corridors reduce the negative effects of habitat fragmentation and improve the longterm preservation of plants and animals?
• Are continued agricultural development and human settlement compatible with preservation and maintenance of biodiversity in Australian tropical rainforest regions?

Center Clients/Partners
We will share our data with the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization, the Wet Tropics Management Agency, the Atherton Shire Council, and the Cairns and Far North Environmental Centre as well as with the Queensland National Parks and Queensland Forest Service. Local farmers, ranchers and foresters have a particular interestin our findings.