"This book is the result of a plant diversity symposium that formed part of a conference, Tropical savannas and seasonally dry forests: ecology, environment and development, held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 14 to 20 September 2003. The conference was attended by 150 delegates from 25 countries worldwide.
From the outset our intention was to focus on neotropical dry vegetation, where our combined expertise lies, and to address the imbalance between the study of rain forests and seasonally dry ecosystems by discussion, and then by publishing data on seasonally dry forests and savannas. Invited speakers were thus chosen with the aim of covering these ecosystems across the whole of the Neotropics. However, like many conference proceedings, and despite our best intentions, this book is not comprehensive or even in its coverage and some geographical areas have slipped through the net. We hope, however, that it will serve to stimulate more research and, more importantly, the urgently needed conservation of the often neglected seasonally dry forests and savannas of the Neotropics.
We would like to thank: the Systematics Association for their generous sponsorship of the plant diversity symposium; the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Legume Donation Fund for their support of speakers attending the symposium; the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for provision of the venue and a reception; John-Paul Shirreffs for help with graphic design; and Sadie Watson, the Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests and Maureen Warwick for administrative help before and during the meeting.
We were assisted in the production of this book by 25 reviewers whose expertise and time were greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank Sam Bridgewater, Hélène Citerne, Kim Howell, and Carol Notman for assistance in editing the manuscripts, and all the authors for their contributions." (Toby Pennington, Gwilym Lewis and James Ratter)
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