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INTRODUCTION: WHY THIS SELECTION?

The seven papers gathered in this special issue have all been presented in an earlier version at the Bonn conference. In selecting these papers, I favoured articles expressing "lesser known" ideasideas that may not be completely new but that have not make their way yet in the forestry research and practitioners community. I also favoured articles with general relevance, even though they appear specific at first hand. It is rare for subjectivity not to interfere in such selection process, and in this case, my own inclinations led me also to favour articles with some provocative' flavour, as long as they were sustained by valid arguments. Each article shows a distinct focus under one of the seven topics that structured the conference,2 and they all -each from a different angletouch upon "improving livelihoods and protecting biodiversity", major issues in the fate of tropical forests and for the future of the people living in and around these forests. The relationship between forests, biodiversity conservation and the improvement of rural livelihoods is the major link between the selected articles, that adds value to the selection and contributes to the rationale behind gathering these papers together.