Frank H. Wadsworth

This book is intended as a reference for those who are to make tropical American forests productive; the students in the forestry schools of the region. There has been a serious lack of a general reference as to what is already known about forest production that might be applicable within the American Tropics. The present book, which is to be translated, is intended to reduce that deficiency. This books focuses on the potentialities of forests. An imbalance between forest productivity and human demands is now so widespread it affects all livings species on Earth. Yet past attempts to manage and culture these forests suggest that their sustainable productivity and resulting utility could be far above anything yet reported. This book is concerned primarily with wood production. Without the direct economic returns possible therefrom, the other, less tangible benefits that accrue from forests are in jeopardy in the face of developmental pressures driven by more attractive direct financial incentives. Nevertheless, multiple benefits from forests are inseparable, so the goal should be to make forests productive for all purposes. Forest production, then, as here defined refers to all the values of forests, including those primarily esthetic.

Two Elevations - above 800m and above 300m - define the montane forests of the caribbean islands. Of the 36 islands considered, 27 have mountains above 300m and 14, above 800m. of the 233,000 km2 of the island, at least 118,000 km2 are above 300m m, and 60,000 km2 are above 800 m.--Publisher description.