RAINFORESTS ARE VALUABLE FOR CONSERVATION

                      New research has found rainforests that have been logged several times continue to hold substantial value for biodiversity and could have a role in conservation.

                   The research, which monitored bats as an indicator for environmental change on Borneo, is the first of its kind to have wildlife in forests logged more than two times. The findings are particularly important because across the tropics forest that has been intensively harvested is frequently targeted for conservation to agriculture and is perceived to hold little value for timber, carbon or biodiversity.

              Recent studies have emphasised similar numbers of species living in unlogged and logged sites, but what is surprising is that just how resilient some species were, even in sites almost unrecognisable as rainforest.

             Only by viewing forest sites along a gradient of logging disturbance, ranging from pristine to heavily degraded, were the team able to detect a gradual decline of some key bat species.

             The research confirmed the most vulnerable bats were those that tend to live in the cavities of old growth trees. By linking bat captures with vegetation measurements from nearby plots, the researchers were able to reveal how these animals declined as successive rounds of logging took their trolls on forest structure and crucially, the availability of tree cavities.

              Although logging damage was clearly detrimental to some of the species studied, the findings also offer some hope for forest restoration efforts.