Dear all, I am writing to see if anyone would be interested in collaborating with us to study forest regeneration and succession following what was a huge environmental disaster. Some of you may have come across news reports that Dole was behind a banana plantation in Sri Lanka situated inside a National Park. Following intense media scrutiny and public outcry, Dole and its local collaborators abandoned the scheme - but only after they had cleared several hundred, possibly thousands, of acres (the full extent is still to be quantified). Below you will finds links to the story, and photos as well as satellite imagery.
This now presents us with a fairly unique and golden opportunity - the chance to study the recovery of this landscape, which was pretty much levelled to the ground. My specialty is elephants, so I would ideally like people who are experienced forest ecologists (or their students looking for a research project). I'd like to turn an environmental disaster into a learning opportunity that could benefit conservation & our understanding of this ecosystem. Any takers? Please discuss amongst your colleagues and reply to me directly. I look forward to some enthusiastic responses! Thanks, -Shermin de Silva Mongabay, November 21 2011: http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1121-hance_dole_abandons.html#ixzz1eSl6BtW5 <http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1121-hance_dole_abandons.html#ixzz1eSl6BtW5>Science Live, August 22 2011: <http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1121-hance_dole_abandons.html#ixzz1eSl6BtW5> http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/08/sri-lankas-new-flashpoint.html -- Shermin de Silva, Ph.D Director Uda Walawe Elephant Research Project email: sher...@elephantresearch.net website: http://elephantresearch.net/ blog: http://elephantresearch.net/fieldnotes/ twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/AsianEle facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ElephantConservation
