Buy Costa Rican beef

Abstract

Tropical conservation biology, like other conservation biology, contains a large and necessary emotional element. People lobby to save that which they take pleasure in. Tropical forests have largely been cleared to produce products for humans. Clearing tropical forest to generate pasture for livestock is an ancient tradition. Beef and other animal products are often produced in substantial excess over local consumption, and the excess (or even more) is sold on international markets. The livestock industry is a conspicuous, easy and sometimes legitimate target for the conservationist intent on saving tropical forest. However, the "tropics" is as heterogeneous in its sociology as it is in its biology. What is appropriate for one country is inappropriate for another.