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Apr 28, 2007

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life." --Hermann Hesse

Guardian of Earth's Trees

For 50 years, Britain's Peter Ashton has been studying –- and trying to preserve –- a wealth of diversity in Asia's tropical forests. An eminent professor of forestry, Ashton has just won $415,000 from a Japanese foundation for a lifetime of work seeking to understand how different trees in the rain forest perform, helping us promote their sustainability. Of all the life on earth, more than half is in the tropics and three-quarters of that is in the rain forest. Says Ashton, "Biodiversity gives us the option for our future not just for 20 years, but for 200 and 2,000 years." So trees or people? In Ashton's view, we can no longer afford to think of it as either-or.