Vertebrate responses to selective logging: implications for the design of logging systems

The adoption of tropical rain forest management systems that conserve both timber stocks and the environment is increasingly viewed as a necessary development to maintain both the tropical timber trade and the forests themselves. There are no theoretical reasons why such systems should not be achievable. Ecological studies of vertebrate animal populations, and of wider ecosystem processes, can assist foresters in designing more appropriate forestry systems and in their long-term monitoring. Data are presented from two Forest Reserves in South-east Asia, Tekam in Peninsular Malaysia and Ulu Segama in Sabah, to show how simple analysis of ecological parameters may be used to quantify the extent to which logging affects the forest ecosystem and the extent to which it recovers over time.