The significance of forest canopies in maintaining environmental conditions on earth is largely unknown to most Governments and even to many scientsts.  We have found our suggestions that resources should be spent on investigating forest canopy interactions with the atmosphere and economic evaluation of its services to humanity, are often met by officials with scepticism.  However, climate impacts on forests and their biodiversity, has greatly accelerated their interst in how these impacts might affect people.  We have also found that once engaged in a dialogue, official scepticism is quickly followed by enthusiasm and then frustration that more is not being done.

With funding from the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Global Opportunities fund, we were able to engage in such a dialogue across the tropics from Brazil to Borneo as well as in the UK and draw attention to the role of the forest canopy in supporting human livelihoods.  These activities are also in support of the new UK Governments ' High Level Sustainable Development Dialogue' in emerging 'Tiger' economies.

The project's title "The Forest Canopy in Brazil, China, India and Malaysia - a new resource for sustsinable use of biodiversity, the development of ecotourism and canopy horticulture' explains its focus.  The problem we face is that many of the services forest canopies provide to humanity, such as stiulation of rainfall, the atmospheric cooling effects of evapotransiration, regional weather stabilisation, carbon stored in forests which can help mitigate CO₂ emissions if unburned, are largely taken for granted, and hence are not valued economically.  In addition, the rapidly growing phenomenon of canopy ecotourism, often fails to provide direct benefits to local communities  where it takes place.  A GCP survey in 2005 found that in Costa Rica alone over 100 such sites for walkways, canopy 'zip' lines or tramways exist with 1 million tourists each year enjoying a canopy experience.  We have found that, Canopy Farming, the sustainable growth of high value canopy plants such as orchids, ferns and bromeliads, or products such as honey, harvested from the canopy and produced on the ground is a largely untested concept in many countries.

In 2005/6 the GCP worked with partners in Brazil, India, Malaysia and China to maintain the high-level dialogue by holding workshops, surveys and stakeholder consultations to develop strategies for the economic valuation of canopy ecosystem services for the frirst time and for the development of best practise models of canopy ecotourism and canopy farming.  Below are the reports from each of the workshops.

Forest Canopies and Sustainable Livelihoods:  Report on India’s First Forest Canopy Workshop.