Linking Ecology, Culture and Conservation Across Ecological Scales: Management and Conservation of Tropical Wild Plant and Animal Resources, held in Uberlandia, Brazil July 24-28

几千年到几十万年来，热带地区的人们捕猎动物，采集野生植物，在森林、草原和湿地找到栖身之所。人类对动植物的影响，有的是消极的，有的是积极的。我们的目标是了解热带地区的植物、动物和人类是如何应对彼此的影响的，在热带地区，许多人依赖自然环境生存。然而，动植物的使用有时会损害环境，这意味着它不能为人们提供食物、水和住所。这有时也意味着帮助该地区植物生存的动物灭绝。通过将包括许多热带国家在内的世界各地的人们聚集在一起，我们将了解我们所知道的人类对热带动植物的影响，进而了解植物和动物如何影响人类。将研究植物、动物和人类行为的科学家，以及依赖天然森林、草原和湿地的社区的土著领导人聚集在一起，可能有助于我们解决这些地区发生的一些问题。我们的会议应该有助于创造理解热带自然的新方法，以便我们能够减少负面影响，促进积极影响。

People in tropical areas have hunted animals, gathered wild plants and found shelter in forests, grasslands, and wetlands for thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. Some human influences on animal and plant are negative and some positive. Our goal is to understand how plants, animals and humans have responded to one another's influences in tropical areas, where many people depend on the natural environment for their survival. However, use of plants and animals sometimes harms the environment and this means that it is less able to provide food, water and shelter for people. It also sometimes means that animals that help to keep plants in the area go extinct. By bringing people together from around the world, including from many tropical countries, we will learn what we know about human influences on tropical plants and animals and in turn how plants and animals influence humans. Bringing together scientists who work with plants, animals and the behavior of people, and indigenous leaders from communities who depend on the natural forests, grasslands and wet lands, may help us resolve some of the problems occurring in these areas. Our meeting should help create new ways of understanding tropical nature so that we can reduce negative influences and promote positive ones.