"No nation on Earth is losing forest faster than Indonesia—at a rate of roughly 1.5 million hectares a year," said Frans Bongers, President of the ATBC. "This is one of the most serious environmental threats we face anywhere."

The Republic of Indonesia sustains some of the richest biological and cultural diversity of any nation on Earth, distributed across an archipelago of over 17,000 islands that span both the Asian and Australasian biogeographic regions.

Meeting in Bali, Indonesia this week, over 900 scientists from the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) released a 'Bali Declaration' that calls for urgent efforts to slow rampant deforestation in Indonesia.

Read the complete Bali Declaration

“Tropical biodiversity: surviving the food, energy and climate crisis”

19-23 July, Bali, Indonesia

Read online the Scientific Program and Abstract

The Gunadarma University sponsored the Virtual Meeting.

More at ATBC2010.org

The 2011 annual conference of gtö - Society for Tropical Ecology will be held in Frankfurt from February 21 to 24, 2011 and will provide an interdisciplinary platform for intensive discussion. The main thema is ""Status and Future of Tropical Biodiversity".