The aim of this research proposal is to study the relation between the biodiversity of forest ecosystems and land use. We hope to develop a fast monitoring system for biodiversity based on diversity of a representative insect group. This research has a biological purpose, but can and will contribute to the research done by the whole team and give specific information from the biodiversity side in the joint environmental research. It is not possible to analyze all the acquired data in the field. A period will be spend at the department of Population Biology (RUL) to do so after returning in the Netherlands. This could also add more knowledge to the biodiversity concept used in the environmental sciences. In the preparatory stage, help with the practical side and standardization will be received from the Department of Population Biology. In environmental sciences, more than in the ecology, the concept biodiversity is linked with the normative good of both long-term human survival and the protection of nature as a value in itself.

See also: Deforestation and sustainable development (Sierra Madre, North-Eastern Luzon, Philippines).

Institute for Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Section Animal Ecology.
Supervisiors: Jan G. Sevenster and Jacques J.M. van Alphen.